Bilawal to meet PM Shehbaz over AJK situation

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, whose party holds the majority in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly, said on Sunday he would meet Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif over the current situation in AJK, asserting that issues would be resolved through talks.

Earlier, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry maintained that most of the Joint Awami Action Committee’s (JAAC) demands, agreed between the JAAC and the government last October, had been fulfilled.

“Thirty-five out of 38 demands have been implemented,” he said while addressing a press conference in Islamabad.

Of the three remaining demands out of the total 38, the minister said that “on some of them, courts had issued an order, and others were not feasible”.

He claimed “negative propaganda was being spread that the government has fulfilled only three out of 38 demands,” emphasising that the solution to the issue cannot be “violent demonstrations” and dialogue should be the way forward.

The minister asked if the unrest was an attempt at “portraying Pakistan and AJK as separate entities; is it an attempt to weaken Pakistan’s relation with AJK; is it an attempt to draw parallels between the people of India-occupied Kashmir and AJK, and lastly, is this an attempt to weaken the Kashmir cause?”

He claimed that the government had not disregarded the JAAC’s demands; however, he pointed out that, “when we talk to them about resolving issues through dialogue, they respond with violent demonstrations; these are two contradictory approaches”.

“The clauses that are yet to be implemented, we can still sit down and talk about them,” he said, reiterating that the solution was not violence and taking law and order into one’s hands.

At the outset of the press conference, Chaudhry said that certain actors were attempting to create a situation of unrest ahead of the July 27 elections in AJK.

“Attempts are being made that the violent protests that have happened in the region in the past can be revived,” Chaudhry said, recalling the unrest in the region in September-October 2025.

He recalled that the JAAC was formed in September 2023 and at the time, they had three demands: subsidy on flour, decrease in electricity prices and reduction in elite privileges.

“As a result of that, we saw a shutter-down strike in 2024 in AJK, accompanied by violent demonstrations,” the minister recalled, stating that the government had fulfilled all the demands at the time.

He further stated that the demonstrations broke out again in September 2025 and a charter of demands was presented, listing 38 clauses, following which the government signed an agreement with the JAAC on October 4.

He added that he, along with the Minister for Kashmir Affairs, Gilgit-Baltistan, Amir Muqam, have been holding monthly meetings with JAAC to review progress on the agreement.

However, JAAC still put out a fresh call for protests on June 9, he noted.

Chaudhry recalled that on May 30, a committee comprising federal ministers met the JAAC in Muzaffarabad, where the demand for abolishing 12 refugee seats was put forward.

He said that government’s representatives suggested that an all-parties conference for every registered political party in AJK be called and the issue be debated, given the constitutional nature of the demand.

“Around 2-2.2 million Kashmiri refugees are living in Pakistan, and 12 people sitting in a closed room cannot abolish those seats,” the minister asserted, adding that the JAAC’s earlier demands had been related to public welfare and were fulfilled.

Chaudhry also said the government’s representatives suggested that the issue should be discussed in the AJK legislative assembly.

It was also suggested that the status of the seats can be contested in the AJK Supreme Court, the minister added.

“We requested that June 9 call be postponed by 8-10 days so we can hold consultations with our senior leadership and work towards a solution,” the minister said, affirming that the government had never refused to discuss the status of the seats.

Chaudhry took note of what he called a “false narrative” circulating on social media that the government had failed to meet all the demands outlined in the October 2025 agreement with the JAAC.

The minister said that 35 out of the 38 demands had been fulfilled by the government, including withdrawal of first information reports (FIR) against demonstrators, reinstating government employees who took part in the demonstrations, a feasibility study on the Kahuta Azad Pattan road in Sandhoti district, procurement of electricity meters via e-tenders, measures for floor quality, internet connectivity issues, establishment of a garbage collection system.

As per the minister, some of the other demands fulfilled by the government included amendments in the local government laws, establishment of two new federal boards, and restoration of the health card facility of AJK, and Mirpur airport among others.

He added that while many of the causes in the agreement could be implemented through executive orders — around 18-19 — the rest included ongoing development projects which “cannot be completed within 3-4 months”.

“It is not justified to hold long marches every six months under such circumstances,” the minister said.