Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan Monday said that the recently arrived 13th Amendment to the AJK's Interim Constitution Act, 1974 reflected a popular demand and aspirations of the people of Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
AJK President Masood Khan, who is also Chancellor of the AJK-based state-run AJK Universities, expressed these views while addressing the inaugural session of a seminar on "Constitutional Reforms 2018," organized by the state-run Mirpur University of Science and Technology (MUST) here at its main campus.
The president highly applauded the role of Prof Habib-ur-Rahman for taking timely initiative to host a day-long seminar on Constitutional Reforms 2018 and inviting some of the best minds and experts on the subject to analyze the constitutional reforms.
President Masood Khan said that the 13th Amendment was a meaningful step towards empowering the State of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, especially the Legislative Assembly and the executive headed by the prime minister. The crux of the 13th Amendment was that it had rectified existence of two parallel administrative and financial authorities - the AJK Government and the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Council.
This Amendment was an evolutionary process in constitutional reforms and did not compromise the strong bond between Pakistan and Kashmir. President AJK said that Azad Kashmir's political parties, encompassing the entire spectrum, had been campaigning for and working on AJK Council's constitutional reform and, at many points, had agreed on a median of the content of these reforms.
The President said that despite the Amendment's passage being widely applauded in Azad Kashmir, some critics, including legists and opposition parties, had raised questions and made suggestions for improvement. "Dissent is good in democracies and should be welcomed," he said.
President Masood Khan said that this amendment had been crafted in a manner by which the basic spirit of the constitution had not been tinkered with. Unlike the Indian Constitution - which had massively encroached on the rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir - this Amendment, did not in any way, affect Pakistan's stance or that of the people of Jammu and Kashmir on the Kashmir dispute.
He denounced the recent attempts of the Indian government for revoking Article 35-A of the Indian Constitution in order to pave the way for changing the demography of the IOK, a move which is against the basic rights of the people living in an occupied territory.
President Azad Kashmir said that the landmark amendment had also been inserted in the Preamble of the AJK Constitution necessary language that empowered the people of Azad Kashmir to pursue and foster the cause of self-determination under the resolutions passed by the United Nation Commission for India and Pakistan. That, he said, helped in giving new opportunities and avenues to project the cause of Kashmir to the international community.
While pointing to the complexities of such amendments, the President said that the issue of the taxes, including the so-called taxes on corporations, should be on its way to resolution as our Constitution clearly stated that all taxes in AJK, including income tax shall be levied by, or under the authority of an Act of the AJK Assembly.
Similarly, the issues in regard to distribution of assets under the control of the council, completion of the ongoing development programmes and absorption and integration of the council employees in the AJK civil service structure would be addressed amicably through consultations, he said.
Stressing the need for building political consensus, he said that it was imperative that a follow up be set up and implementation mechanism for the 13th Amendment, which was inclusive and fully representative. All the stakeholders from Azad Kashmir and Pakistan should be on board and should be thoroughly consulted and it would be also prudent to have a dialogue of the AJK's ruling party with the opposition, so as to take them into confidence about the implications of the constitutional reforms, informed the President.