Refugee seats: AJK court puts all political groups on notice

Asks them to file their concise statements to decide the fate of 12 legislative assembly seats for Kashmiri refugees.

MUZAFFARABAD: Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s (AJK) Supreme Court on Friday issued notices to all the political parties of the territory to file their concise statements to decide the fate of 12 seats for Kashmiri refugees at the AJK Legislative Assembly.

The court admitted the appeal of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) AJK’s Secretary General Shah Ghulam Qadir against the AJK High Court order of November 2013.

The AJK HC on November 29, 2013 had directed the Election Commission to reject the papers of Shah Ghulam Qadir as his wife was not a registered voter of the Neelum Valley constituency, where Qadir had lost the contest just by a few hundred votes in 2011 elections against Pakistan Peoples Party candidate Main Abdul Wahid.

The three-member bench, comprising Chief Justice Muhammad Azam Khan, Justice Muhammad Ibrahim Zia  and Justice Raja Saeed Akram Khan , said in a short order that the appeal, which arose out of the high court judgment, had partially been accepted.

“After hearing the counsel for the parties at some length, we are of the view that legal questions of public importance touching upon the fundamental rights and political structure of Azad Jammu and Kashmir are involved in this petition.

“The matter also relates to the elections and it is pending in the courts for the last three years, therefore we deem it necessary to dispose it of expeditiously,” the order stated.

The top court also asked the AJK Prime Minister Chaudhry Abdul Majeed, Opposition leader Raja Farooq Haider Khan, Speaker Sardar Ghulam Sadiq, all AJK political parties heads, who participated in the 2011 general elections and their secretary generals to file their  concise statements  about the fate of 12 Kashmiri refugee seats and the right of the refugees to elect their representatives for the AJK Legislative Assembly.

The bench also directed the advocate general to furnish before June 24 the list of political parties with particulars which have been given mandate by the people of the AJK in the 2011 elections.

The apex court requested the Supreme Court’s former chief justice justice (retired) Manzoor Hussain Gilani and senior advocate Raja Muhammad Hanif Khan to assist the court as ‘friends of the court’.

The next hearing of the case will be held on June 24 at Circuit Bench of the Supreme Court, Mirpur.