For the uninitiated, ‘AJK’ is a territory of about 13,000 sq km that was once part of the kingdom of the Maharaja of Kashmir, as is the rest of what we call PoK ( Pakistan-occupied Kashmir), which includes the much larger over 72,000 sq km of Gilgit Baltistan.

A hugely strategic area since British times, Islamabad quietly divided PoK into two through the still unrevealed Karachi Agreement 1949, in complete violation of UN Resolution 47.  Essentially, the ‘Azad Kashmir government’ handed over 12 subjects, like defence, foreign policy, and the coordination of all affairs of Gilgit Baltistan to Pakistan. In other words, ‘Azad Kashmir’ found itself a quarter of its former size, without any consultation with its own people. 

Subsequently, the basics of a presidential, and later a parliamentary system were set up, which meant a president, a prime minister, a legislative assembly etc, all of which sounded fine on paper. In reality, actual power resides with the Prime Minister of Pakistan, who chairs the upper house called the Kashmir Council in Islamabad, which is dominated by establishment cronies. The Council decided on everything from publication of newspapers to the appointment of the auditor general, leaving the legislative assembly with basic day to day running of the state. It does levy taxes, but tax officials are appointed by Islamabad.

In 2018, the outgoing Nawaz Sharif government tried to overturn this state of affairs with the 13th Amendment, which quietly transferred the huge powers of the Council to the legislature and changed the terminology of ‘Interim Constitution’ to just ‘Constitution’. That would have given ‘AJK’ a certain independence. Then, Imran Khan’s government reacted with a hammer that was the 14th Amendment in 2020. It took away even the few powers of the state, and indeed banned the use of the word ‘state’ at all.

Among other changes, a new clause allowed any bill passed by the Council to become law, without the assent of the ‘President’ of PoK, completely eroded judicial autonomy, and further restricted political activity. It was virtual annexation, and was opposed ‘in totality’ by the Cabinet of ‘AJK’, but the legislative assembly was reported to have accepted it in December 2020. 

Why have an election at all?