For a long time, right since the Independence of the country and accession of the erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir with India, Pakistan has fomented insurgency in Kashmir, that is historically and legally a part of India. After about 80 years, since it launched its first war on India in Kashmir, the proverbial “chickens have come home to roost” for Pakistan. Right now, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) remains embroiled in widespread protests against the Pakistan government’s political interference. Fifteen people have been killed in protests so far.
In 1947, Pakistan occupied a part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir while it acceded to India, under the provisions of the Independence of India Act 1947. Pakistan did not stop there. It continues fomenting trouble in Kashmir right till today, even after having suffered repeated defeats in wars with India in 1965, 1971, 1999 and recently in 2025. Pakistan has stuck to its stated policy of “bleeding India through one thousand cuts”, by way of sponsoring insurgencies in different states as it knows pretty well from experience that it cannot match India in a conventional war. The war in 1971 cost Pakistan half of its territory, leading to the creation of Bangladesh.
While Jammu and Kashmir continues to be and will always remain part of India, Pakistan has started losing its grip over parts of the state, which it occupied in 1947. Pakistan officially calls the occupied territories as “Azad Jammu and Kashmir” (AJK), which is a paradox. Technically, the people of occupied Kashmir “elect” their own “President” and “Prime Minister”, while in reality, these leaders are imposed by the military-controlled Pakistan government. Officially, the occupied Kashmir is “autonomous”, with Pakistan having control only over defence, foreign relations and communications, but practically and effectively not a leaf moves there without the permission of the federal government.
Recent protests that have spread across the entire region of the occupied Kashmir are in support of the demand for repealing the reservation of 12 seats for the “refugees” from the state of Jammu and Kashmir, who are not residing in occupied Kashmir, but different parts of mainland Pakistan. The protests hit at the very foundations of Pakistan’s control over the occupied Kashmir.
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The ‘legislative assembly’ of occupied Kashmir has 45 seats. Of these, 12 have been reserved for the people who are not living there but are spread across Pakistan, particularly in the provinces of Punjab and Sindh. They constitute more than one-fourth of the total number of seats of the occupied Kashmir assembly. Without the support of these 12 members, no government can remain stable in occupied Kashmir.
It is evident that the Pakistan government is using these 12 seats as a means of direct interference in the governance and administration of occupied Kashmir. There is hardly any “original” refugee who is alive. Their number may not even be a thousand. Now, the “reserved voting rights” of those refugees have passed on to the second and third generation. People of occupied Kashmir have a genuine reason to resist the reservation for such people.
These “refugees” have been living in different parts of Pakistan and are born and brought up there. They have nothing to do with occupied Kashmir. They remain unfamiliar and alien to the language, culture and life in occupied Kashmir. Just because their forefathers migrated from parts of Jammu and Kashmir does not entitle them for voting rights in a place they have never lived in and in all likelihood, not even visited.
In the first week of June this year, the Supreme Court of occupied Kashmir rejected a petition seeking scrapping of the reservation of 12 seats for “refugees”. The Supreme Court maintained that the provision is protected by the Constitution and will need a Constitutional amendment. This shattered the hopes of people seeking its scrapping and led to widespread protests leading to the death of at least 15 people.
The protests are being organised by the Jammu and Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JKJAAC). The name appears to have been picked up from the Kashmir-based Awami Action Committee headquartered in Srinagar and headed by Mirwaiz of Kashmir, Umar Farooq.
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This is a classic example of chickens coming home to roost for Pakistan. As Jammu and Kashmir returns to normalcy, the occupied Kashmir has started exploding in protests defying and challenging the authority of the Pakistan government and its military. Unlike the state of Jammu and Kashmir in India, people in occupied Kashmir remain educationally, economically and socially backward and politically subdued as due to the reservation, 12 members, more than one fourth of the strength of their legislative assembly, come from mainland Pakistan. There cannot be a worse example of direct political control than that.
The Pakistan government has been trying to use brute force. It killed 11 civilians, who were protesting peacefully against reservation in their legislative assembly for outsiders. Not just that, the Pakistan government has banned the JKJAAC under the draconian “anti-terrorism” laws and designated it as a terrorist organisation. It has drawn condemnation from leaders like Dr Farooq Abdullah, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and Mirwaiz Kashmir Umar Farooq. Dr Abdullah has sought UN intervention into the atrocities being committed against Kashmiris by the Pakistani forces in occupied Kashmir.
One of the main reasons for rebellious protests by the people of occupied Kashmir is the welfare and empowerment of their fellow Kashmiris living across the Line of Control (LOC) that separates the two parts. With the advent of social media and easy access to unfiltered information, people of occupied Kashmir have now realised that their counterparts are better placed.
No matter how ruthlessly the Pakistan government may try to crush the protests, these are spreading across every nook and corner of occupied Kashmir. Pakistan is getting the taste of its own medicine.
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