By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Peoples Party and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl agreed on Tuesday to contest general elections in Pakistan-administered Kashmir together, as authorities pressed a crackdown on a banned protest group behind weeks of unrest in the region.
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari announced the pact after visiting JUI-F leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman at his residence in Islamabad, telling reporters afterward that the alliance opened “a new chapter” in relations between the two parties.
Elections for the 45-member Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly are scheduled for July 27, the region’s Election Commission said earlier this month. The last vote was held in July 2021.
Bhutto-Zardari said the alliance’s priority was to keep the campaign free of unrest, and he called on residents to pursue their grievances through parliament rather than street protest.
“Legitimate concerns of the Kashmiri people should be addressed through parliament and the electoral process rather than through unrest on the streets,” he said.
He credited Fazlur Rehman’s experience navigating past political crises and said he had learned from the JUI-F leader’s conduct “during difficult times.” Bhutto-Zardari added that if Fazlur Rehman was prepared to play a constructive role from the opposition benches, the ruling coalition was equally ready to engage him.
He also floated a wider partnership beyond Kashmir, saying he hoped the PPP and JUI-F could form coalition governments together in Balochistan and Sindh as well as Azad Kashmir, and said he had asked Fazlur Rehman to consult his party on where else the alliance might extend.
Bhutto-Zardari said resolving the crisis in the region would require coordinated action by the federal government, the Azad Kashmir administration and political parties across the spectrum, and he appealed directly to protesters to stay peaceful and avoid taking matters into their own hands.
Fazlur Rehman, for his part, welcomed the visit and the alliance, calling it “a good development.” Asked whether JUI-F supported demands to abolish seats reserved for Kashmiri refugees in the assembly, he said the matter should be worked out through dialogue rather than confrontation.
“Guns and batons are not the solution to any problem, but dialogue,” he said.
The announcement followed the PPP’s release on Sunday of candidates for 35 of the assembly’s 45 seats, with eight constituencies still undecided and two seats allotted to JUI-F under the new arrangement.
Separately, authorities in Azad Kashmir arrested a senior leader of the banned Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee on Tuesday, a local official said. Deputy Commissioner Munir Qureshi in Muzaffarabad said Shaukat Nawaz Mir, described as a central leader of the group, was detained along with an associate by police and security personnel in the Hail Sarang area of Dhirkot.
The Azad Kashmir government outlawed the Joint Awami Action Committee on June 5 under anti-terrorism legislation following violent demonstrations. The group has been campaigning to abolish 12 assembly seats reserved for refugees who fled to Pakistan from Indian-administered Kashmir after 1947, arguing the allocation dilutes local representation.
Islamabad has cast the campaign as an attempt to disrupt next month’s vote. Earlier this month, an All Parties Conference convened at the prime minister’s secretariat in Muzaffarabad rejected the group’s demand, with participants arguing that constitutional changes fall solely within the purview of elected legislators and cannot be forced through demonstrations outside parliament.
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