New Delhi, Oct 5 The recent unrest in Pakistan-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (POJK) and Islamabad's role in quelling it has once again laid bare its pretense of labelling a region "free", when actually under occupation.
Security deployments, communication blackouts, emissaries dispatched for negotiations on ground -- all reflect Islamabad's absolute control over the region.
It is barely a self‑governing territory, claimed to be following its own Constitution, with a Legislature, President, Prime Minister, courts and Ministries, but major sovereign and practical powers remain with Pakistan's federal government and its security establishment.
Such, and more realties are confirmed from information available on open sources.
The POJK Legislative Assembly, for example, comprises 53 members, where 45 are directly elected general seats, with another eight "reserved" seats -- where five are for women, and one each for a technocrat, an ulema, and another for nationals residing abroad.
However, among the 45 general seats, 12 are exclusively for "refugees from Jammu & Kashmir".
Massive protests erupted last week across POJK, led by the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), who demanded in a 38-point charter that these seats, which are in reality Islamabad's nominees, be abolished.
Other demands included subsidies to help common people access basic requirements like power and flour, whose costs have been escalating.
They also sought an end to elite perks, and greater local control over their own resources.
Incidentally, Islamabad, while allocating funds and subsidies, retains its control over disbursement.
Also, major schemes in POJK, including hydropower projects like the Mangla Dam, are controlled by Pakistan, offering very limited benefit to locals.
Mangla Dam, on the Jhelum river, is one of the largest of its kind in Pakistan, playing a significant role in irrigation and hydroelectric power generation.
In addition, protesters reiterate the fact that voters for 12 of the 45 constituencies are Kashmiri "refugees" registered in various districts outside the POJK.
They are from Pakistan –- spread across Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, etc. –- but are not recognised as part of POJK residents.
Thus, such "elected" so-called refugee‑seat members in the POJK Legislative Assembly in Muzaffarabad in reality represent people based in Pakistan rather than constituencies located inside its territory.
The political parties in the region, too, are mostly extensions of Pakistan's national parties, like the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), among others.
Even in administrative appointments and the bureaucracy, senior civil service posts, like the chief secretary, and other senior officials, are filled from Pakistan's federal and provincial cadres or with Islamabad's approval, linking administration to federal control.
Meanwhile, the "Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit‑Baltistan" acts as a formal link between Islamabad and the POJK, and can intervene in policy and negotiations.
Islamabad has exhibited the power it wields in earlier instances, having intervened in leadership changes –- including dismissals of POJK Prime Ministers.
Thus, it was no surprise that negotiations were carried out by a delegation dispatched by Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, rather than one by a locally elected government.
Even the reported agreement between the team from Islamabad and protesters was officially announced by Pakistan's Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry.
A word added to the original name of an illegally occupied region does not render it free.
Pakistan retains decisive authority over almost all aspects in the region, leaving its inhabitants at the mercy of Islamabad while maintaining a sham facade.
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