A Journey in Jammu Kashmir & Allied areas (JKA)............................
from Subject to Citizen
.........autocracy to democracy
.........Dogra Raaj to Awaami Raaj
.........1947 CE to...........................
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#Neutrality
#WaterManagement #MirpurtoLondonviaCentralAsia
In 34 days of sitting at the Square, today has been my most appalling time on record! 53 minutes late!
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The pot calling the kettle black is what comes to mind after reading the following notification from the district administration of Muzaffarabad:
Translated thus:
Press Note
Muzaffarabad (09/07/2022) During the current month (malicious) written and verbal (speech) content has surfaced from within various types of social media websites and WhatApp groups about the State and departments of the State (of AJK). Such anti-State (and State institutions) written and verbal material are liable for prosecution under prevailing laws. Such content cannot be ignored in any manner. Formal legal action is underway within Muzaffarabad against the fraternity of those characters who are directly or indirectly involved in these accumulated illegal acts. Formal notifications have been sent to monitoring teams at the level of every police station to track such social media website activity, to investigate such written and spoken content and strictly enforce legal proceddings against those characters involved.
Signed
Spokesperson District Administration
Muzaffarabad - 09/07/22
End of translation....
So, the idea is to victimise and prosecute anybody in the public who identifies corruption and other illegal activity on the part of government employees. With the absence of an accountability mechanism in AJK, such inhumane behaviour is the norm.
We are not fighting this without reason and if such a system functioned in any 'developed' democracy, the inhabitants there wouldn't either.
Here's the much anticipated comprehensive video interview of Malik Waseem Kashmiri, conducted by myself a few days ago:
Title and description was as follows:
Malik Waseem Kashmiri vs The State of AJK
The land and people of Jammu Kashmir & Allied areas (JKA)
If we tolerate the strong occupying the weak inside our territory, then how do we reason with external occupiers?
Large or small, occupiers are occupiers.
A comprehensive video interview of Malik Waseem Kashmiri by Tanveer Ahmed, in reference to the land of Sardar Singh and Ratan Singh in Naluchi, Muzaffarabad.
A comprehensive written report on this 'test case' will also be published very soon.
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Meanwhile, DC Muzaffarabad is trying his best to trace Malik Waseem and get him illegally arrested once again, to prevent him from agitating for his rights.
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We are reminding both our public as well as the institutions built courtesy of that public that cleaning our environment is a basic requirement for civilisation:
Here's the text describing the embedded video above:
Waste management, soil management, water management and human/data management at Maqbool Bhat Shaheed Square - Dadyaal
If it succeeds in this square it will succeed throughout the c.85K square miles of JKA.
Slavery is a curse and freedom doesn't come without getting your hands dirty.
Bringing regular - and hopefully - increasingly positive changes in one's daily routine at the age of 50 brings much change in one's body. It feels as if a whole circuit board is being changed.
Long may this continue.
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I know - we Muslims - get very emotional and furious when it appears that somebody has insulted our holy prophet (peace be upon him). We do it by instinct because of our love and devotion but we must take heed of the following examples from our beloved prophet's own life:
It is indeed. It is also to be noted that - at least in this day and age - it is more likely that non Muslims will understand the universal messages of Islam rather than Muslims themselves. In general, Muslims adopt the faith but not the guidance > complications 4 all humanity.
There was always likely to be a sharp turn in matters related to Malik Waseem Kashmiri versus the State of AJK. I've been studying this 'test case' since the middle of December last year. In fact, I dedicated a folder for this issue and began collecting evidence on all matters related to it, on the 13th of December 2021.
There was a twist yesterday and it is just ballooning as an issue, with more thrust than at any point since Malik Waseem and his family were evicted on January the 17th 2022, from Sardar Singh and Ratan Singh's land in Naluchi, Muzaffarabad; that they had occupied as refugees from the other side of JKA (Kupwara) in 1949. after migrating in 1947.
The man on the ground representing the 'strong arm of the law' was Deputy Commissioner (DC hereon) Muzaffarabad Nadeem Janjua, who used all available tools in the British colonial manual to allegedly detain, intimidate, harass, torture, beat and blackmail Malik Waseem and his family.
He was following orders from the Supreme Court of AJK, claimed he and almost every other asset of the 'governance system' in Muzaffarabad.
Yesterday morning, news reached most parts of AJK that a stolen car (from Lahore last year) with government of AJK number plates, was in the 'custody' or 'use' of DC Muzaffarabad.
According to the following video report by a Pakistani news channel, namely City 41:
From 05:46 in the video....
DC Muzaffarabad is clearly implicated as 'custodian' of this stolen vehicle. The presenter also mentions that DC (Muzaffarabad) implored the owner to not publicly disclose this information; that the stolen vehicle with government of AJK number plates, was found in the DC's 'custody'.
On the contrary, DC Muzaffarabad Nadeem Janjua issued the following press note, yesterday too:
In this press note, DC Muzaffarabad Nadeem Janjua claims to have nothing to do with this stolen vehicle and considers it to be a cunning conspiracy against him and the 'honourable' office that he holds. He finishes by declaring that he is in the process of taking stern 'penal' action against all these 'conspirators'.
I wonder what action he should anticipate, if he is found guilty in a responsible court of law?
Will the endemically corrupt governance system in the State of AJK - even as much as investigate - his alleged 'misuse of authority' on an increasing list of alleged crimes?
Or in the words of a learned co-citizen: Will anybody investigate the Pakistani TV channel City 41?
Remaining with yesterday, DC Muzaffarabad summoned Malik Waseem's elder brother Malik Naeem to his office - on the pretext that he wanted to show him some shelters (fabricated building structures) - for the alternative land that the government of AJK had arranged, as compensation for Malik Waseem and his family (which incidentally is already disputed by two other parties).
DC Muzaffarabad Nadeem Janjua
Leaving aside for now the legal basis for this contrived agreement (blackmail according to Malik Waseem), DC Muzaffarabad is alleged to have kept Malik Naeem restricted to the former's office all day and ended with open threats to the latter. Ranging from, "Bring your brother Malik Waseem here or else I will make all hell break loose on your family once again," to "This time I detain your brother, I promise you that you will never ever see him again," to "Go get lost, you will not get any land" and "Go to Modi, where you belong!" etc.
Meanwhile, this is how Malik Waseem may have felt on January the 17th 2022:
Meanwhile, the following was a protest outside national press club Islamabad today, by students in response to Punjabi students conducting a lethal attack on Kashmiri students at Qaid e Azam University a few days ago. They demanded that the attackers be immediately arrested:
The third night in a row that I haven't been able to sleep properly. Two nights at Shaheed Chowk (Martyr's square) Kotli and one night prior which was spent in preparation.
I can barely sit and write but....the show must rumble on...
Malik Waseem is apparently missing again, according to Latif Akbar (President of Pakistan People's Party in AJK and hails from a constituency in Muzaffarabad tehsil/subdivision) who contacted me this morning, to enquire as to which police station was Waseem detained in. We've also been advised to file a habeas corpus petition on his behalf, by a very senior lawyer.
More (and much more) in a bit....I can barely keep my eyes open.
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1512hrs: (Update)
I managed to get some much needed shut eye for a couple of hours in a friend's shop and this has re-energised me somewhat.
Rain remains incessant and the temperature is dropping too. I haven't been able to sit in the chowk today yet. There are tonnes of matter pending as anyone who is familiar with my work can imagine.
Meanwhile....
The police have insisted that the complainants reference Malik Waseem's detention (without charge) at Saddar Thaana should speak to the DC and that only he could release him. The complainants duly did so with their advocate. DC Nadeem Ahmed Janjua refused to entertain them or their application. This prompted me to contact the DC myself, whom I have been acquainted with in the past.
Me:
Huzoor....can you update us on the Malik Waseem issue. I have been conducting a 'Public Policy Workshop' at Shaheed Chowk Kotli for the past 3 days and there are a few thousand people constantly engaged on this issue - at home and abroad - I will be writing to the British government on this issue and related matters of governance, specifically in reference to their unfulfilled responsibilities under Indian Independence Act. Thank you.... Tanveer Ahmed
DC:
There are decisions of courts
Do study those decisions
Regards
Me:
There is an abundance of ambiguity and contestation about due legal process in reference to this case as well as over 80% of land (revenue department) related decisions in general, in AJK.
Please note the role of Judge Tariq Custodian who the evicted family claim tampered documents, which were then subsequently used as reference in subsequent court proceedings, which ultimately led to decisions being made against this family.
The evicted family have made it clear that they want an official enquiry into the court record on this issue.
The AJK administration is effectively displacing a poor refugee family from Evacuee Property to give it to another refugee who has since settled in England and who doesn't suffer from the conditions that this poor family does. In other words, the latter is not dependant on this land and will only sell it to the highest bidder. The human cost of this commercial transaction is too much for any right minded public rights activist to bear.
In the wider State of JKA perspective since 1947, this case takes us back to those events and forced migration in particular. The land in question belongs to the descendants of Ratan Singh and Sardar Singh and has been occupied by a poor refugee family of Kupwara, who in turn are being displaced once again for commercial purposes, based on an allegedly malafide procedure.
As this case continues to gain increasing traction at home and in the diaspora the implications could be very far reaching.
Meanwhile, thank you for your response. It has been duly noted.
End of communication....
Now, it has been intimated to me by other sources that Commissioner Muzaffarabad Masood ur Rehman has been tasked with managing this increasingly delicate issue (caught between the Indian, Pakistani and internal narratives of JKA). He's been given such tasks before in his previous incarnations and from direct experience of him, he has always murdered public interest for the sake of powerful lobbies - the Muhammad Ali Murtaza case on the LOC in Khuiratta 2013 - when he was DC Kotli, maybe an exception.
It is also clear from sources that the police and other authorities are keen on blackmailing Malik Waseem by conditioning his release, on him giving a guarantee that he will no longer publicly protest his plight. They've also conditioned the release of the womenfolk of his family from a refugee shelter on similar assurances, backed by a legal bond (machalka) of 50,000 rupees each.
