MUZAFFARABAD: Former Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) prime minister and leader of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Raja Farooq Haider reiterated on Sunday his suggestion that his party should immediately withdraw from the coalition government in the state.

Addressing his voters and supporters in the border town of Chakothi, Mr Haider attributed last month’s tragic incidents, which resulted in four deaths, including that of a police officer, to the “non-seriousness of the incompetent government in Muzaffarabad”.

“I harbour no antagonism towards Chaudhry Anwarul Haq personally, but I must say he would have been better suited as an auditor rather than the prime minister,” he said.

In a reference to the change of three governments in Azad Kashmir since July 2021, he said: “What has happened and is happening is due to the experiments made in the liberated territory over the past three years.”

Regarding the PML-N AJK chapter, he said he had worked tirelessly to build a strong organisation and could not bear to see its disintegration.

“I have asked the [PML-N] regional president, Shah Ghulam Qadir, to convene a meeting of the governing body and convey the sentiments and recommendations of its members to the party’s Quaid and central president, Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif,” Mr Haider said.

Referring to the situation in occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the former AJK prime minister said despite substantial financial investments by Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), they were unable to find even a single candidate for the recently held parliamentary polls across the held valley.

He made it clear that the Kashmiris had no animosity towards Hinduism or its followers but were against Mr Modi’s extremist anti-Muslim views, which Kashmiris also rejected in the recent Lok Sabha elections.

The former AJK premier reiterated that those who equated Pakistan with India were enemies of the Kashmiris.

“The conditions being created in Azad Kashmir pose a serious threat,” he warned without elaborating.

“If you have a home, then you command honour,” he said, alluding to the liberated territory.

“We should choose the right path for our goals and make thoughtful decisions. It’s my responsibility to tell the right thing to the people.”

Praising the people living along the Line of Control (LoC), he said India had indiscriminately targeted innocent civilians at the LoC as well as within occupied Kashmir.

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2024