Last month, Pakistan-administered Jammu and Kashmir (PAJK) became a political battleground
for mainstream Pakistani parties as the country's top elite campaigned in the hilly
and much-coveted region.
Twenty-five political parties, including the local branches of
the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Muslim Conference (a local party
credited for leading the revolt against the princely ruler of Jammu and Kashmir
in 1947), Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N), Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM),
the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami, contested the elections. PML-N leader and
namesake Nawaz Sharif led his party's campaign, whilePakistan's prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani was
the face of the PPP. The electoral battle was far from smooth, as violence
claimed three lives and scores of political agents and workers were injured during
the process. According to the unofficial results, of 34 seats contested, the
PPP won 19, the PML-N nine, the Muslim Conference four, while two
independent candidates managed to work their way in as well.
Politicians from the region and commentators within Pakistan have remarked that the elections will
impact Pakistan's position
on the larger Jammu and Kashmir issue, the
perennial source of friction with rival and neighbor India. The present PAJK Prime
Minister and Muslim Conference leader Sardar Attique termed the elections
one of the "blackest"
polls in the history of the state, and said that the polls would have a negative
impact on the Kashmir issue. He attacked both
the PPP and PML-N, and demanded an inquiry commission comprising judges of
superior courts be constituted to look into complaints of irregularities. However,
PPP leaders have termed the election a reflection of its popularity among the
masses.
The issue of Jammu and Kashmir
has defined Pakistan's
foreign policy and security considerations since 1947. Pakistan has often claimed that the region under
its control is an independent state -- PAJK is known as "Azad Jammu Kashmir" in
Pakistan, and the ruling elite in Islamabad often tell
foreign audiences that the region is a separate country, with Pakistan only
responsible for its defense. The region has its own constitution and separate
flag. Its diaspora settled in the West, one of the biggest from South Asia, is
a key source of foreign exchange for Pakistan.
In actual practice, though, no political party that openly advocates
independence for PAJK can participate in the elections. Part 2 of section 7 of
the 1974 PAJK constitution says that "no
person or political party in Azad Jammu and Kashmir shall be permitted to
propagate against or take part in activities prejudicial or detrimental to the
ideology of the state's accession to Pakistan." Under section 5 (2)
(vii) of the PAJK Legislative Assembly
Election Ordinance 1970, "a person will be disqualified for propagating any
opinion or action in any manner prejudicial to the ideology of Pakistan, the
ideology of state's [sic] accession to Pakistan, or the sovereignty and
integrity of Pakistan." Thus, without signing a sworn statement of allegiance
to Jammu and Kashmir's accession to Pakistan and
thus renouncing the region's independence, nobody is allowed to take part in
the PAJK legislative assembly elections.
Notwithstanding the integrationist provisions within the
PAJK constitution, Pakistani political parties have always taken a nuanced public
stand in the region's politics, though intervention of the federal government was
quite obvious at frequent occasions in the power struggle within the region. The
present election is an important watershed in the region's political history,
as the electoral process converted the region into a virtual playground of
Pakistani politics. Though the PPP has been an important political player in
the region for more than two decades, these elections marked the entry into the
local politics of the PML-N, which had traditionally supported the Muslim
Conference.
The founder of the original Muslim League and an independent
Pakistan, Mohammad Ali
Jinnah, took the position that the party would support the Muslim Conference in
Jammu and Kashmir
and not float its branch in the region. After the partition of Jammu and Kashmir in
1947, the Muslim League and its later avatars continued to support the Muslim
Conference in PAJK, in order to maintain Jinnah's traditional position. The PML-N's
decision to enter the fray resulted in the electoral process becoming a fight
between Pakistan's
arch rivals.
The current vote was a continuation of the process which
started during Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's tenure as prime minister, when the Muslim
Conference's political monopoly over the region was challenged for the first
time. Bhutto opened a branch of the PPP in the region, and decided to encourage
a more progressive leadership. He even traveled to the area and met
pro-independence leaders in Mirpur district, PAJK's most prosperous district
and economic hub, and asked them to join the party. Three decades later, a
number of disgruntled local leaders of the Muslim Conference approached Nawaz
Sharif and his brother Shahbaz (now the chief minister in the Punjab province) to open a branch of the PML-N, bringing the process full-circle
and fully enmeshing Pakistan's
national political parties in the local political scene.
***
Besides paying lip service to Kashmir issue, the main
political issues raised during the elections were an extension of
those prevalent in the rest of Pakistan.
The prime issue which dominated the elections was the role of Pakistani
military in the national politics. The PML-N made a quick
retreat from its previously aggressive stance on Pakistani military, when Shahbaz
Sharif, campaigning in central PAJK, clarified that the party is only against
few generals. Incidentally, Sharif made the remark in an area that is
one of the prime recruiting belts of Pakistani military. Some of the highest-level
generals in Pakistan's
military have come from the area.
The PAJK election has also impacted the national political
scene. The PPP's refusal to concede one seat reserved for refugees from the
region voting in Sindh province to the MQM became the final straw, prompting
the MQM to withdraw its support from the PPP government. However, the
withdrawal should be seen in the light of gradual deterioration of the
relationship between the two parties, a movement rooted in competition between the
two parties to strengthen their respective bases in Karachi, the capital of Sindh province.
The PAJK election will ultimately have several important
implications. The entry of more political parties in the region has since increased competition,
which in turn may prove to be better for the electorate. In the past, most of
the critical decisions regarding the region were taken by the federal
government, which then defended these decisions under the guise of "national
interests" which placed the policies above question. Potentially, now with a
greater participation of Pakistani political parties in PAJK, there will be
greater federal government accountability in the region, and
a greater need to both explain government actions and more directly provide for
the local people.
The election also demolishes the decades-old myth perpetuated
in Pakistan
that PAJK is a separate country. It has become an extension of Pakistan's polity, a fact that will almost
certainly re-shape the narrative of the Pakistani political elite on PAJK --
something that will in turn have implications on the broader Jammu and Kashmir issue. Pro-independence groups, particularly in southern
PAJK (which incidentally garner extensive support from the diaspora), and
regional political groups will continue to oppose the full-scale participation
of Pakistani political parties in PAJK governance, which may cause increased friction in the future.
But perhaps more importantly, for years the
Pakistani state has brushed aside the presence of militant groups in the region
by saying that PAJK is an independent country, and that the state has no
jurisdiction over its affairs. As Pakistan pulls PAJK into a tighter
embrace, it will have to deal with the consequences of the region's more formal integration into Pakistan, and accept responsibility
for how its territory is used from now on.
Luv Puri is a
political analyst, who has written two books on South Asian political
and security issues. His book Across
the Line of Control, based on field work in Pakistan
and Pakistan-administered Kashmir will be co-published by C. HURST & CO.
(PUBLISHERS) LTD in July 2011 and Columbia
University Press in the
fall of 2011.
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