May I ask that is so azad about AJK?
KARACHI: With reference to the coverage of the recent elections in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (usually shortened to AJK) in your newspaper and in fact in much of the national media, may I ask that is so azad about AJK? I was taught in school as I grew up that the name of the region is Azad Jammu and Kashmir. But the fact is that the currency used there is the Pakistani rupee, the army that defends it is the Pakistan Army and the party which swept to power in the elections happens to be a branch of the ruling party in Pakistan. Both the prime minister and the president of AJK were nominated by the PPP, which is based in Pakistan and the speaker of the AJK assembly was nominated by the PPP central executive committee in a meeting in Islamabad.
In addition to all of this, the largest opposition party in the AJK assembly also happens to be a branch of the PML-N, which again is based in Pakistan. So will anybody please explain to me what is so ‘azad’ about Azad Jammu and Kashmir? Lest I be accused of being an Indian agent, let me clarify that I am a patriotic Pakistani looking for an answer to what I think is quite a confusing situation.
Mohammad Iqbal
Published in The Express Tribune, August 1st, 2011.
