Leaders from several parties in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) used a meeting in Rawalpindi on Monday to press for a calm and dignified way through the AJK Poonch situation. They voiced concern that law and order in the territory, particularly in Poonch division, was deteriorating. They asked for the crisis to be settled through a political agreement.
Monday's meeting was an AJK leaders call for peaceful resolution, held at a private residence. A statement issued from the gathering listed the steps participants want for people in Poonch division, and it set the same peaceful and dignified standard for any settlement.
Who sat together in Rawalpindi
Muslim Conference president Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan hosted the meeting at his residence in Rawalpindi. Pakistan Peoples Party leader Sardar Yaqoob Khan attended, as did Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz AJK president Shah Ghulam Qadir and PML-N leader Raja Farooq Haider. Chaudhry Muhammad Yasin, leader of the opposition in the AJK Assembly, and Istehkam-i-Pakistan Party AJK president Sardar Tanveer Ilyas were also there, along with others.
Politicians from the Muslim Conference, the Pakistan Peoples Party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Istehkam-i-Pakistan Party were therefore in the same room, with the AJK Assembly's opposition leader among them. The statement that followed gave their demands as the position of the participants.
What they want restored
The statement calls for internet services to be restored. It asks for food and medicines to be supplied without interruption. It also seeks the resumption of communication links and free movement in Poonch division.
Participants also said eligible voters in the region should be allowed to take part in the electoral process without delay. The statement frames that prompt access as part of the same appeal.
Concern over order in the division
The meeting expressed deep concern over law and order in AJK, particularly in Poonch division. Participants called for a political settlement of the crisis through peaceful and dignified means. In their account, the AJK Poonch situation is bound up with the wider AJK political situation, and they want that settlement to carry dignity as well as calm.
The practical list sits beside that appeal: connectivity, food, medicine, movement and the vote. The participants described Poonch division as the place where those worries are sharpest.
Aasan alfaaz mein
AJK ke leaders ne Poonch division ke crisis ka aman aur izzat wala hal manga hai. Unhon ne internet, khane aur dawai ki supply, rabta aur azad aana jaana bahal karne ko kaha. Jo log vote de sakte hain, unhein electoral amal mein deri ke baghair shamil karne ki bhi demand hai. Yeh baat Somwar ko Rawalpindi mein Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan ke ghar par hui meeting se saamne aayi.
