PoK Kashmiri Leaders Demand UN Peacekeeping Forces Replace the Pak Military Presence
JAAC announced to hold fresh protests on August 13 to remind the world community about the resolution passed on August 13 in 1948
New Delhi: The Kashmiri leaders of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) on Monday said that they will make a major announcement on August 13 with regard to their struggle and indicated that they may use the occasion to demand that United Nations peacekeeping forces replace the Pakistani military presence amid ongoing regional unrest.
The Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), has flayed the Pakistani government for blaming India for the protest and unrest saying the JAAC’s National Charter of Demands must be understood in its proper context, rather than hastily attributed to India or deliberately misrepresented. The group that is in the forefront of the protests, has also called for a plebiscite in PoK so that people of the region can decide their fate.
JAAC announced to hold fresh protests on August 13 to remind the world community about the resolution passed on August 13 in 1948.
“On the 13th of August, we will make a new announcement in line with the UN resolution on Jammu Kashmir on August 13th, 1948. This UN resolution stipulated that Pakistan should withdraw its forces from PoK and then a plebiscite would take place. Perhaps it will be a call for UN Peacekeeping Forces to replace the Pakistani Occupation Army,” JAAC leaders said.
“The JAAC’s National Charter of Demands must be understood in its proper context, rather than hastily attributed to India or deliberately misrepresented. For three years, our central demands have included ending the privileges enjoyed by politicians, judges, senior bureaucrats and contractors benefiting from public schemes, and transferring ownership of hydropower projects built in the region to the Kashmir (PoK) government, in accordance with the 2019 High Court judgment. Three written agreements signed between JAAC, the Kashmir (PoK) government and the government of Pakistan over the past two years were never implemented. Instead, the issue of refugee seats was used to distort our agenda, malign the movement and portray JAAC as a terrorist organization,” JAAC said in a statement.
It added that the events of the past two months was a last-ditch attempt by the Pakistani establishment to protect the region’s elite and preserve a failed system of governance.
“We hold our political leadership responsible for the killings and will neither reconcile nor enter into any political accommodation with those responsible... The time has come for accountability and justice. We will not allow these failures or the lives lost to be ignored.”
To pacify the protestors the Pakistan government has constituted a high-level committee to prepare a new financial framework for PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB). The committee will finalize proposals for an National Finance Commission style financial framework aimed at ensuring the financial stability of PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan.
Meanwhile, the third phase of polling in four seats in PoK was held on Monday amid clashes and rigging allegations. Voting for seven out of 11 seats were postponed due to the law and order situation in the region.
