Power struggle: Federal govt, AJK still locked in logjam

Minister says govt is authorised to appoint senior officials.

ISLAMABAD:

The deadlock between Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and the federal government continued over the removal of the chief secretary and inspector general police of AJK after an election controversy emerged in one of the constituencies of the AJK assembly.

“As per the law, the federal government is authorised to appoint the highest administrative officials in the state government and there is no reason to remove two senior officers as per the wishes of the AJK prime minister,” said Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan Muhammad Barjees Tahir at a press conference on Tuesday.

He said there is an agreement between the federal government and AJK that the centre will appoint senior officers. He added that as per the agreement, the chief secretary is solely responsible for maintaining the law and order in AJK, who is the appointee of the federal government.



He said that Rangers personnel were deployed at polling stations during the by-election on the request of the AJK chief election commissioner to maintain law and order and ensure a transparent vote.

Soon after defeat in the by-elections in LA-22 on February 22, the AJK government transferred two top bureaucrats to the centre, accusing them of influencing the election at the behest of the federal government. However, the federal government did not allow them back and asked them to continue their services till further notice.

According to the minister, the elections were peacefully conducted without any untoward incident due to the deployment of Rangers. However, he said that two days later on Monday, a clash between the PPP workers and local police resulted in the death of one person, and injuries to two others.

He also alleged that the AJK prime minister and his 32-member cabinet were fully engaged in influencing the election, but the people voted against them due to bad governance and corruption.

Blame game, boycott in the Senate

Opposition parties in the Senate blocked the proceedings of the upper house on Tuesday, accusing the government of rigging the AJK by-polls by appointing what it called a ‘biased chief secretary’ and inspector general of police.

PML-N candidate Sardar Farooq Ahmed Tahir was declared the winner by defeating ruling party’s Fahim Akhtar Rabbani with a margin of more than 4,500 votes, according to the vote count of the local election commission. Meanwhile, PPP refused to accept the results and a worker of the party died in the protest clashes on Monday.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 26^th, 2014.