Marathon talks between a federal ministerial team and the core leadership of the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) ended in Muzaffarabad City without an agreement, with the committee members announcing that its June 9 strike call would go ahead as scheduled while the federal delegation insisted that the negotiations had not broken down.
The federal delegation comprised cabinet members Rana Sanaullah, Tariq Fazal Chaudhry and Ahsan Iqbal, alongside former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and former federal minister Qamar Zaman Kaira. Prime Minister Faisal Mumtaz Rathore, Pakistan People’s Party leader Chaudhry Muhammad Yasin, Pakistan Muslim League-N leader Shah Ghulam Qadir and former minister Chaudhry Tariq Farooq also joined the talks.
“The negotiations have absolutely not failed; this process will continue,” Rana Sanaullah told reporters after the talks. “We held the meeting in a very good atmosphere. We also gave some suggestions, and they did too. The process of dialogue and consultation on these issues will continue next week as well,” he said, adding that the Kashmiri government and the Muslim League leadership had agreed to convene an all-parties conference on the situation and the JAAC’s demands so that all stakeholders could be taken into confidence.
According to Rana Sanaullah, another round of talks was expected on June 6 or 7 following the conference. Responding to a question about the possible impact of the ‘dispute’ on the forthcoming general elections in the state, he said that the polls would be held in accordance with the constitution and expressed confidence that the situation would be defused before the election process.
“We held talks with the representatives of the governments of Pakistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) throughout the day on all issues, including the 12 refugee seats. Despite the ‘breach of trust’, we had detailed discussions, and proposals were exchanged as well,” JAAC core member Shaukat Nawaz Mir told reporters after the leaders emerged from the meeting room.
“The official representatives asked us to postpone our strike call. But we have decided to keep it intact and we call upon the masses to expedite preparations for it,” he said. He hastened to make it clear that the committee had welcomed every serious effort on part of the government for resolution of demands and renewed its resolve to extend a similar gesture in future.
The talks were convened in an effort to persuade the Joint Awami Action Committee to withdraw its planned strike and resolve differences over its charter of demands. The process, which continued for more than nine hours with breaks in between, assumed added significance because the strike call has raised concerns about its possible impact on the forthcoming general elections, expected in the last week of July.
Although the election schedule has yet to be announced, observers believe any prolonged agitation could complicate preparations for the polls. Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs Amir Muqam was absent, and his absence came amid the repeated demand that he be excluded from the negotiations due to alleged bias. However, members of the federal delegation maintained that he was occupied with engagements related to the Gilgit-Baltistan elections.
The Joint Awami Action Committee was represented by 16 core members, including Shaukat Nawaz Mir, Raja Amjad Ali Khan, Anjum Zaman Awan, Umar Nazir Kashmiri, Saad Ansari and Imtiaz Aslam. The first round of talks began shortly before 2pm and continued until 4pm. The participants said that all but one of the 38 points in the JAAC’s charter of demands were discussed. The remaining issue was the most contentious: the abolition of 12 legislative assembly seats reserved for ‘refugees’.
The Muslim League opposes abolition of the refugee seats, expecting to perform strongly in the 10 constituencies located within Punjab. The People’s Party, which currently enjoys the support of five ‘refugee’ lawmakers, is reportedly less invested in retaining the seats due to limited electoral prospects. During a break in the talks, members of the official delegations remained at the Pearl-Continental Hotel and Mountain Resort, located atop a beautiful hill in Muzaffarabad City, for lunch.
Representatives of the Joint Awami Action Committee declined to join the visiting delegation and instead drove to Chattar Chowk for a meal, saying they did not wish to be part of what they described as the wasteful use of taxpayers’ money. During the interval, JAAC leader Umar Nazir Kashmiri rejected the impression that the talks were focused solely on the refugee seats issue. “Negotiations were being held on all points included in our charter of demands, not just the 12 seats,” he said.
“If the issue of these seats is resolved, we will withdraw our strike call,” he said, and maintained that the abolition of ‘elite’ privileges was an equally important demand. “We want an end to the privileges enjoyed by rulers, the bureaucracy and the judiciary at the expense of poor taxpayers,” he said. It is pertinent to mention here that the Election Commission has issued a Preliminary Electoral List in the last week of April for the upcoming elections of the Legislative Assembly.
