Day 60 at Maqbool Bhat Shaheed Square - Dadyaal.
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| 0840hrs |
My punctuality deficit has increased to 507 minutes.
After a few days of progress I have slipped once again.
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A backfooted 'rationalising' attitude displayed by - Pakistan's Advisor to the Prime Minister on Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit Baltistan - or just another example of Pakistani legerdemain in Muzaffarabad?
We are certain that Qamar Zaman Kaira is working hard to downplay Pakistan's annexation attempt.
He describes the problem as an administrative one in terms of there being no clear link between AJK and the federation of Pakistan, in terms of administering the appropriate share of Pakistan's federal finance to AJK, as it isn't a province or a constitutional part of Pakistan. Further that the Pakistani prime minister as chairman of the (now advisory post 13th amendment) Kashmir Council is not a sufficient enough bridge.
Kaira is categorically saying that there is no intention to take back financial powers from the AJK government via the Kashmir Council (obtained via 13th amendment).
He is also categorically saying that there is no attempt to provincialise (or federalise) AJK.
Qamar Zaman Kaira describes the proposed (15th) amendment as a list of suggestions which required feedback from the AJK government, that it is open to revision and is of course subject to acceptance by the AJK Assembly.
He ends (this particular video clip) with an attempt to butter the audience by using the terminology 'special status' for AJK.
What we are saying is:
You need to de-link from us all together as siding with you (or any other country) is an automatic liability for the most sought after territory in the world. We can only prosper if we are independent. We cannot be independent unless we are neutral towards every other country on earth. The world will only believe us if we can provide a powerful enough ethical argument as to why this is a more meaningful alternative to regional occupation (China, India and Pakistan) and superpower contests between (China and USA).
Possessing world class water management technology and delivering religious harmony are 2 clues to this ethical argument.
As a footnote, we also understand that all other political parties in the AJK Legislative Assembly boycotted Qamar Zaman Kaira's visit to Muzaffarabad, except his own party, namely PPP (Pakistan People's Party).
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Hajeera has on average - at least over the past few years - been the most active tehsil (subdivision) in AJK. In this video, the tehsil's women can also be seen leading the public rights rally:
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Kotli has also registered itself on the anti-15th amendment radar:
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Students in Muzaffarabad have also convened to chalk out their role in the current heated atmosphere:
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In many senses, Haveli is our remotest district in AJK, not least because it juts out eastwards on the map leaving it surrounded on 3 sides by the Indian army. Despite its geographic peculiarity it hasn't been immune to the sentiment throughout the rest of AJK:
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