By Staff Reporter
MUZAFFARABAD: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly on Thursday unanimously passed two resolutions addressing the unrest that has gripped Rawalakot and other parts of the region, condemning remarks made by federal ministers on the crisis and throwing its weight behind a proposed Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate the violence.
The session unfolded against the backdrop of AJK’s staggered elections, which are being conducted in three phases because of security concerns. The first round, covering the Mirpur division, went ahead on Monday and was marred by scuffles, disorder and mutual accusations of rigging between the PML-N and the PPP.
Only nine members turned up for Thursday’s sitting, chaired by panel member Nabeela Ayoub — seven from the governing PPP and one apiece from the PML-N and PTI.
Ministers’ remarks censured
The first resolution, tabled on Wednesday by former AJK president Sardar Muhammad Yaqoob Khan, who was absent from Thursday’s proceedings, took direct aim at what it called “irresponsible” comments from federal ministers over the Rawalakot violence.
It singled out Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, criticising him for allegedly declining to acknowledge the people of Rawalakot as Kashmiris — language the resolution said had wounded public sentiment and ought to have drawn the prime minister’s attention.
The text invoked the historical contribution of the people of Poonch to the Pakistan Movement and the region’s accession to Pakistan, noting that those flayed alive in 1832 came from the same soil. It went on to cite Ghulam Haider Jhandalvi, who represented Kashmiris at the adoption of the Pakistan Resolution in Lahore on March 23, 1940, and AJK’s founding president Sardar Muhammad Ibrahim Khan, at whose Srinagar home the accession resolution was passed on July 19, 1947 — figures the assembly said belonged to that same lineage.
The federal ministers’ statements, it argued, had “added fuel to the fire,” inflaming sentiment not only in Rawalakot but across the state and among the Kashmiri diaspora.
The resolution called for federal action on Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s proposal for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission and urged that no further steps be taken in Rawalakot until such a body was in place. It also pressed the Election Commission to guarantee free and fair polling and demanded that irregularities alleged in the Mirpur division vote be resolved before any further rounds proceed. Dialogue, it said, was the only route forward — continued confrontation would harm the region’s own people while handing India a chance to internationalise the dispute. A reconciliation commission, the resolution concluded, was the only credible safeguard against further instability.
A more detailed reckoning
The assembly then turned to a considerably more expansive resolution moved by PPP regional president Chaudhry Muhammad Yasin, which passed with the same unanimity.
It opened by reaffirming the assembly’s commitment to constitutional supremacy, democratic governance, the rule of law and the protection of life and property, and paid tribute to the security personnel, police and law enforcement officers who died in the course of duty, extending sympathy to the families of all those — civilians and officials alike — killed or injured during the unrest.
The resolution drew a firm line between legitimate dissent and unlawful conduct. Peaceful protest, free expression and the articulation of political, economic, administrative and social grievances were affirmed as constitutional rights — but the resolution stated plainly that weapons, violence, vandalism and intimidation could never be accepted as legitimate tools of political struggle. It urged peaceful demonstrators to distance themselves from armed and violent elements, and insisted that any culpability for offences be established individually, through evidence and transparent investigation rather than collective blame.
Government and law enforcement, the resolution said, must act against violent actors without discrimination and strictly within constitutional and legal bounds — with the object being the restoration of law and peace, not retribution. It reiterated that no individual, party or organisation would be permitted to challenge the writ of the state through force, while insisting that all those arrested or under investigation be afforded fair trial guarantees and due process.
Expressing sorrow over the loss of life and property, the resolution called for the unrest to be examined through an impartial and lawful process, free of predetermined conclusions — and it was here that the assembly extended its backing, in principle, to an independent and adequately empowered Truth and Reconciliation Commission tasked with establishing the causes and sequence of the crisis, along with every death, injury, property loss and allegation of violence or weapons use.
A proposed framework
The resolution laid out, in some detail, how such a commission might function. It proposed that the federal government and representatives of the protesters jointly endorse in writing the commission’s establishment, composition, terms of reference and procedure — after which the AJK government would constitute it without delay under the relevant law.
That endorsement, it suggested, should be matched by an immediate halt to protests and a corresponding de-escalation from the government: reopened roads, restored emergency and medical access, resumed supplies, and reconnected mobile and internet services alongside normal civic and economic life. Protesting parties, in turn, would hold off resuming demonstrations until the commission delivered its findings, while both the AJK and federal governments would pause further action pending the inquiry — except where an imminent threat to life or public safety demanded otherwise.
The commission itself would be empowered to examine FIRs, documents, video evidence, forensic material, communications and testimony, and to hear from affected families and other relevant parties. It would not adjudicate criminal guilt, but could refer matters to the appropriate investigative, prosecutorial or judicial authorities. Its final report — subject to considerations of national security, privacy and witness protection — would be made public, with scope to recommend compensation, humanitarian relief, institutional reform, legal proceedings and safeguards against recurrence.
The resolution closed by urging the AJK government to address the underlying political, economic, administrative and social grievances through dialogue and constitutional channels, on the principle that political disputes belong at the negotiating table, legal disputes in the courts, and public verdicts at the ballot box. It reaffirmed the assembly’s commitment to peace, democracy and constitutional governance, condemned all armed violence and disorder, and closed with a prayer for stability and prosperity in the region.
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