The AJK Assembly Speaker, Chaudhry Tariq Farooq, has called for a broad political consensus on the future of refugee seats in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir legislature. Talking to reporters in Muzaffarabad on Thursday, he urged political leaders to resolve the current crisis through dialogue and reforms instead of revisiting what had gone wrong. His remarks set out a direction for cooperation rather than a decision, and no final arrangement for the seats has been announced.
The speaker's case for reform
Farooq said political leaders had a chance to line up with national goals and offer guidance by choosing a forward path. He said he supported reforms across all state institutions. He argued that AJK cannot move ahead while carrying a large administrative structure and high spending, and asked that the newly chosen government, made up of young people, be given time to find the right course.
Subsidies on electricity and flour, he added, will stay in place. Relief and concessions, however, should be aimed at beneficiaries identified through data.
Drawing a line between constitutional posts and the executive, he said the speaker sits outside the government, as the state president does. The cabinet and the prime minister form the government, he said.
Cabinet gap and Poonch elections
The government has been in office only a few weeks, and the second phase of cabinet formation is still pending. Farooq said it would be completed once Nawaz Sharif, the PML-N chief, returns to Pakistan. He said the government and cabinet have not been widened because elections in seven constituencies of Poonch division are still pending. With no one from those areas in the cabinet, he said, the government cannot be treated as complete or fully functional.
Informal negotiations are under way through the AJK president to improve law and order and ease tensions in Poonch, Farooq said. He hoped backchannel contacts would bring positive results, and he asked the media to avoid speculation until the talks produce an outcome.
Parties, talks and what comes next
Farooq accused the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), which held power briefly, of trying to exploit the Poonch situation for political gain. He said the phased elections had been held with the party's consent.
He called on the state president and the wider political class to step forward and seek answers through dialogue. Parties and their leaders, he said, are responsible for playing a meaningful part, and he claimed that efforts to sideline them started in the earlier assembly. Farooq also pointed out that he and several PML-N colleagues had proposed a fact-finding commission a year earlier to look into how the present situation arose, yet no party agreed to back it.
For now, no official decision on refugee seats has been reported, and the available information does not say when a wider agreement might emerge. The Poonch talks remain informal, so the speaker's appeal is the latest official position on record.
Aasan alfaaz mein
AJK Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Tariq Farooq ne refugee seats ke mustaqbil par siyasi jamaaton se broad consensus aur dialogue ki appeal ki hai. Unhon ne kaha hai ke Poonch mein elections abhi lambit hain aur cabinet ki doosri phase bhi baaqi hai. Bijli aur atta par subsidy khatam nahi hogi, lekin relief sirf asal hadafdar logon ko dene ki baat hui hai. Abhi tak seats ka koi final faisla report nahi hua.
