news details |
|
|
| SUNDAY SPECIAL: Spotlights are on PoK players | | President doesn't know his Premier's gameplan | | B L KAK
NEW DELHI, AUG. 26: The same old Kashmir-related shibboleth now being used by the newly-appointed President of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), Zulqarnain Khan: India should demonstrate sincerity for finding a solution to the longstanding dispute of Kashmir in accordance with the wishes of the Kashmirs. Khan, who took oath as President of the PoK in Muzafarabad on Friday (August 25), deemed it necessary for obvious politcal and strategic reasons to play the 'Kashmir card' by urging the Indian leadersdhip to show sincerity for finding an "honourable" solution to the Kashmir issue in "accordance with the wishes of the Kashmiris".
That the PoK President also wanted to garner further support of the "super commando", Gen. Parvez Musharraf, was borne out by his plea to New Delhi to give "serious consideration to President Musharraf's suggestions of joint control, demilitarisation and self-governance" vis-a-vis Kashmir. 73-year-old Zulqarnain Khan was quoted by the Pakistani print and electronic media as saying: "We fully support peace process in the region and hope it will engender a solution to the Kashmir issue that reflects the sentiments of the people of Kashmir".
The PoK President did make an attempt to keep the 'Kashmir pot' boiling and to incite the Islamist rebels and separatists in Indian Kashmir. "No stone", he declared, "will be left unturned for bringing freedom" to the Kashmiri people in Indian controlled Kashmir. "Freedom from Indian rule", was his message.
Khan's 'coronation' tok place at a time when the parliamentary oppositon in the ocupied Kashmir boycotted the ceremony in a continuing protest against the alleged riging in the July 11 election. An atmosphere of political evasion prevailed at the ceremony, Pakistan's influential English daily, Dawn, reported. Eye-brows were also raised at the absence of any notable representation from the Pakistan government, though the organisers had expected some ministerial or gubernatorial presence to witness the installation of the man whose election to the office is credited in the occupied territory's political circles to a nod from Islamabad rather than a strong clout in the ruling All-Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference (AJKMC).
More importantly, the PoK Prime Minister, Attique Ahmad Khan, was conspicuous by his absence. An d the official explanation in Muzafarabad in this regard was that Attique Khan could not be present because he was away in Saudi Arabia to perform Umra, though the presidential camp had expected him to return by Thursday. Hence, the report from the camp: PoK President had particularly felt his Premier's absence.
Worse still, even the outgoing President of PoK, Sardar Mohammad Anwar, who was elected to the office five years ago immediately after retiring as an Army Major-General, did not stay in Muzaffarabad to see his successor being sworn in as the 23rd President of the territory since the 'Azad Kashmir' government was set up in October 1947 at the start of the first India-Pakistan war over Kashmir. Anwar left Muzaffarabad on Wednesday without waiting for his five-year term to expire at midnight and sent back his personal security and other staff from Islamabad.
Veteran Kashmir leader, Abdul Qayyum Khan, who has been both President and Prime Minister of Pakistan occupied Kashmir and is still an effective leader of the ruling party now headed by Attique, his son, was not at the ceremony because of being abroad for medical treatment. Former Prime Minister of PoK, Sikandar Hayat Khan, whom Attique has succeeded, was the most prominent politician at the ceremony. But his presence did not seem to subdue speculations sparked by some absences about the future relationship between the new President and his Prime Minister, Attique Ahmed Khan.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
