Muzaffarabad, the regional capital of Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir (POK), recently became the epicentre of unrest amid dire financial crisis and rising political tensions in Pakistan. People, led by the Jammu and Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), planned to hit the streets in May 2024 to stage protests against the increase in prices of essential commodities. However, the Pakistani Police arrested top JAAC leaders ahead of the protest rallies, with people engaging in clashes with the Police and Paramilitary Forces. The local media reported that several people died, while hundreds received serious injuries.
Gilgit-Baltistan, a region administered by Pakistan as an administrative territory that consists of the northern portion of the larger Kashmir region, has remained the most volatile in recent times. Later, the JAAC called off the agitation after the Local Administration made promises to look into them and come up with effective solutions to the same. The Government of Pakistan, too, announced a USD 83 million subsidy package to deal with the situation in POK. On May 13, 2024, the Administration of Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif in Islamabad declared that it would provide POK with graded electricity tariff relief, apart from reducing wheat prices. However, the public dissatisfaction was not completely abated.
There is nothing new in such unrest in POK. People staged protests against a sharp increase in electricity bills in August 2023. Local leaders have long been accusing Islamabad of regional discrimination! One of their main complaints is that they do not receive the amount of electricity they should get from the Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Project. After the Pulwama terror attack in 2019, India increased tariffs on Pakistani goods, creating troubles for the traders in POK. The situation was further complicated when Pakistan cut off all trade exchanges with India after New Delhi abrogated Article 370 of the Indian Constitution in India-Administered-Kashmir the same year. The Article 370 granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir. Shrinking of bilateral trade hit the Pakistani economy hard. In addition, the recent unrest in POK has further unsettled Islamabad at a time when the global community is experiencing an unusual rise in food and energy prices because of the Russia-Ukraine War.
Needless to say, the diplomatic importance of the region is immense due to the dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. Pakistan has long presented itself to the global community as the main proponent of rights of the Kashmiri people, accusing India of so-called Human Rights violations (in the Indian-Administered-Kashmir). However, the recent crisis has exposed the inadequacies of the Pakistani Government's governance.
Now, the international community has started realising that Pakistan has not only neglected the socio-economic development of POK, but has also abused Human Rights in this region. In other words, the fresh tension in POK has increased the discomfort of Islamabad at the global stage. It has also allowed the top political leadership in New Delhi to claim that POK is an integral part of India. Pakistan may get involved in a bigger form of crisis, if it fails to bring the situation under control!
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