LAHORE, Punjab: Jamaat-i-Islami will form a Kashmir peace jirga to facilitate talks between the Azad Jammu and Kashmir government and the banned Joint Awami Action Committee, the party said Sunday.
The decision was taken at a meeting of JI’s central Majlis-i-Shura at Mansoorah, Lahore, chaired by JI Emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman.
JI said the jirga would engage both sides to restore peace and resolve issues in AJK. The party named JI Deputy Emir Liaqat Baloch as the committee’s head.
The committee includes JI AJK Emir Dr Muhammad Mushtaq Khan and former regional chiefs Abdul Rashid Turabi and Dr Khalid Mahmood, according to the party statement.
Hafiz Naeemur Rehman said the committee would be expanded to include former civil bureaucrats, retired judges, former military officials and civil society members from AJK.
He urged the federal government to begin negotiations without delay, saying dialogue was the only viable way to stop further deterioration in the region.
The JAAC and the regional administration remain at odds over several demands, including the committee’s call to abolish 12 AJK Legislative Assembly.
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Seats reserved for refugees from Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir settled in Pakistan after 1947. AP reported last month that JAAC opposes the reserved seats and says they give undue influence to non-residents.
The AJK government declared JAAC a proscribed organisation on June 5 after the group announced a strike. Authorities later arrested several leaders and activists.
JI said its expanded committee would soon visit Rawalakot to meet JAAC leaders. The move follows clashes on the Arja-Rawalakot road in which at least one man was killed, and several others were injured, officials said.
