ISLAMABAD: The top court in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) observed on Sunday that the 12 seats reserved for Kashmiri refugees in the regional assembly have constitutional protection and cannot be removed through administrative or executive measures.
The seats are reserved for refugees who fled Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir after 1947, and their descendants. The issue has been a flashpoint between the government and the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), a civil rights alliance that has led public agitation over administrative and political grievances and has recently been banned by the AJK government.
In response to a presidential reference seeking clarity on the region’s interim constitution, AJK Supreme Court Chief Justice Raja Saeed Akram Khan and Justice Khalid Yousaf Chaudhary issued an advisory opinion on Sunday, dealing a blow to JAAC’s months-long protest movement to demand immediate abolition of the reserved seats ahead of the upcoming elections in Azad Kashmir.
“The twelve refugee seats incorporated in Article 22(1)(a)(ii) and (iii) of the Constitution can be altered, reduced, or abolished only through a constitutional amendment enacted strictly in accordance with Article 33,” the top court stated.
The AJK government welcomed the ruling in a statement, saying that the apex court’s advice sets a clear framework by maintaining that constitutional amendments are “a solemn constitutional act, not a concession to be wrested from a government under duress.”
In recent years, JAAC has led protest campaigns against high electricity costs, wheat prices and government privileges before expanding its demands to include broader political and governance reforms.
While a high-level government committee previously reached an agreement on 36 out of 38 JAAC demands that were administrative in nature, the government maintained that the remaining matters, including the abolition of refugee seats, required formal constitutional amendments.
“Since constitutional matters fall outside executive authority, the Government’s decision to refer the issue to elected representatives was rightly not a refusal to negotiate but recognition of constitutional limits,” the AJK government said.
JAAC says the issue of refugee seats is “an administrative and political matter” and has demanded their abolition on the grounds that they “distort” local electoral representation and are used for “electoral engineering.”
While the AJK government denies this, the Supreme Court explicitly noted in its advisory opinion that “neither the Government nor the Prime Minister possessed the legal authority to concede to JAAC’s demand through executive action, regardless of political pressure.”
The development comes two days after authorities proscribed JAAC and arrested over 70 people associated with the group over reports about their involvement in “potential violence, acquisition of weapons, attacks on law-enforcement personnel, and plans to disrupt normal life.” JAAC denies the allegations and says its struggle for rights is peaceful.
JAAC earlier called for a wheel-jam strike in Azad Kashmir on June 9 — the same date the AJK election commission has scheduled the filing of nomination papers by candidates for the July 27 general elections.
In its advisory, the AJK top court ruled that general elections are mandatory and must proceed within the timeframe prescribed by Article 22(4), noting that “political controversy, agitation, or disagreement over constitutional questions cannot be used as grounds to delay elections.”
