MUZAFFARABAD, Feb 4: Dozens of civil society activists staged a protest, on Monday, calling upon the Chief Election Commissioner of Pakistan to take stock of “unlawful inductions in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Council at the hands of federal minister Kashmir Affairs, Manzoor Wattoo, for electoral purposes.”
Holding banners and placards, the demonstrators, including traders, lawyers and community leaders, assembled outside the press club and chanted slogans against Mr Wattoo for “abusing his position” and called upon AJK’s leadership to deal with the issue.
The demonstration was triggered by reports that the AJK Council secretariat had omitted the condition of ‘state subject certificate’ for the applicants for vacant posts in its secretariat in Islamabad and in some of the departments under its administrative control.
It may be mentioned here that the AJK residents and Kashmiri refugees settled in Pakistan are recognised by a ‘state subject certificate,’ issued by the AJK authorities under the laws enforced in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir in April 1927 and June 1932.
The protesters alleged that Mr Wattoo was not only bent upon making these recruitments from his constituency in the Punjab but he was also spending resources of AJK Council to woo voters, ahead of Pakistan’s general elections.
“This is our blood (taxes) which is being dished out for electoral purposes in Pakistan,” said Zahid Amin, one of the organisers of the demonstration. Employees of the AJK Council departments provided documents to Dawn on the occasion which revealed that the AJK Council secretariat had shown blatant disregard to the stay orders granted by the AJK High Court (HC) in the recruitment matter.
According to the documents, on October 19, 2012, the AJK Council secretariat had advertised 9 junior grade posts without mentioning the condition of ‘state subject’ for the applicants.
On being challenged by advocate Fazal Mehmood Baig, the AJK HC directed, on December 28, 2012, for maintenance of status quo in the matter. The status quo was renewed by the HC on January 18, 2013, besides serving notices on the AJK Council to file objections and arguments by or before the next date of hearing on February 7.
However, on November 14, 2012, the AJK Council secretariat advertised 10 more posts in B-17 and B-16 for contractual appointments, once again making no mention of state-subject in the eligibility column.
The second move was also challenged by one Sajjad Hussain Shah in the AJK HC. The court admitted the petition for regular hearing on December 13 and ordered maintenance of status quo. The second petition comes up for hearing on February 12.
However, in a blatant disregard to both orders, the AJK Council secretariat had issued call letters to some candidates for interviews.
Copies of two such call letters, issued on January 30 and directing the applicants to appear for interviews in Islamabad on February 6 were available with Dawn.
“They (AJK Council) don’t respect even our courts and are shamelessly going ahead with loot and plunder of our resources…
This is too much,” regretted Anjam Nisar Mir, president of the Muzaffarabad’s Bar Association.
Civil society leader Khalid Mughal warned that the situation could compel the AJK residents to stage a long march on the AJK Council secretariat in Islamabad.
Demonstrators also criticised the AJK government for keeping quiet over the matter.
“It’s very unfortunate that while the Supreme Court of Pakistan and the CEE are oblivious to the abuse of our resources, our own government is also behaving as a silent spectator due to its political compulsions,” lamented Mir advocate Fazal Mehmood Baig. This correspondent tried to reach AJK Council’s new joint secretary (JS) for comments but he was not available.http://dawn.com/2013/02/05/protesters-demand-action-against-minister-2/
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