Daily Diary (DD) - Day 73 of 2018

2104hrs:

From an early start..............most of the rest of the day was spent in downtime.........I wanted to visit Kotli and Nikyaal today.

To investigate a threat by the Deputy Commissioner (DC Kotli) of 'harsh action' if a persistent #WhiteFlag and #SignatureForPeace campaign in Nikyaal, conducted by victims and co-citizens of the LOC were not to be abandoned.

"Pakistan's reputation in the 'international order' is at stake" is the carrot end of the stick as far as creative and peaceful protest anywhere in #AJK is concerned.

We - the persistent victims - are not allowed to create agency for resolving the very tragedy imposed on us..

This is akin to being prevented from mourning our dead. DC Kotli is only acting as a pliable messenger. Don't target him - as a citizen - he is a part of the solution, not the problem.

It all begins and ends with the dominant narrative in the public domain. If the Pakistani State's national narrative gets upset by peaceful messages to the international community - including India and Pakistan - from AJK, then the Pakistani State has no moral ground to impose its presence here.

A lot of us speak about de-militarisation as a first step towards a durable peace (and solution). Indeed, some of us even give 'brazen' speeches in public space throughout AJK from time to time, to this effect.

How many of us have methodically thought it through and weighed it against what is practically possible?

A data (collection) public agency has been through this thought process and utilised a measure-able amount of collective public wisdom to give practical shape to an Ownership-Building-Measure (OBM).

In order to proceed, this agency now only lacks two (2) steps before being able to carry out its first measure of de-militarisation in AJK:

1) A consensus amongst the 1,000 most influential citizens of AJK (proportional according to population of each tehsil and excluding serving MLA's), followed by a consensus amongst the 29 MLA's directly elected from constituencies in AJK.

2) The creation of a security agency (or merging into data agency) to secure the space vacated by de-militarisation.

I couldn't leave home today, never mind visit Kotli or Nikyaal. The reasons should be obvious to my co-citizens.

I shall abide by the principle: "Neki kar - Sila na Mang"