PoK bearing brunt of Islamabad-induced political uncertainty: Exiled PoK leader Shaukat Kashmiri

Shaukat Ali Kashmiri, an exiled PoK political leader, has launched a scathing attack on Pakistani leadership for its discriminatory attitude towards the people of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

United Kashmir People's National Party chairman Shaukat Kashmiri's criticism comes as massive anti-Pakistan demonstrations have swept through the illegally held region.

The protests started after Pakistan Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif recently cowed down PoK PM Tanveer Ilyas during a public rally. Shehbaz's guards also mistreated him when the latter tried to correct him on facts.

Shehbaz Sharif was in PoK to inaugurate the operationalization of the additional capacity of an already controversy-ridden Mangla dam. While highlighting that no Pakistani government has ever been supportive of PoK people's rights, Kashmiri said the current dispensation was particularly discriminatory for a different political party was at the helm of affairs in PoK.

"Tanveer Ilyas is a member of the political party headed by Imran Khan and is the nominee of Imran Khan. So now the government is against the PTI and in Pakistan, there is uncertainty and a worrying situation as there is no stability in Pakistan economically and politically. So periphery, a person who belongs to an occupied area that has no constitutional power how he can fight," said Shaukat Ali.

People in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir have time and again accused Islamabad of exploiting their resources and not meeting the corresponding column of their needs. Locals say the Mangla dam, which primarily serves the people of PoK by meeting their electricity and irrigation needs, has been built at the cost of their displacement.

"The government of Pakistan since 1948, exploited natural resources in return they received unemployment and exile, and most of the people faced very hardships as they have no medical facilities. Even the PM has described that we have no health facility and there is no secret. In the whole of Pakistan not only in PoK the freedom of expression has been compromised when the constitution does not grant freedom of expression. The state imposes religious norms and it is also debatable. Pakistan as a state uses religion as a tool," said Kashmiri.

The region of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, which Pakistan claims to be an autonomous region has been struggling to secure even basic rights for over seven decades.

As per the PoK framework, PoK has its own Prime Minister, President and Supreme Court, but the region is directly controlled by Islamabad through the Kashmir Council, whose chairman is the Prime Minister of Pakistan.

However, critics say Islamabad has appointed its "lent officers" in the form of the IG police, Chief secretary and Finance Secretary in PoK to keep its dominance in the region.

( With inputs from ANI )

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