New Delhi, May 2
Amid demands by people of northern areas in Pakistan occupied Kashmir for constitutional rights and greater devolution of power, deputy speaker of Northern Areas Legislative Council (NALC) Asad Zaidi has expressed the hope that the body will soon be given the status of an Assembly.
Zaidi, who was in the capital for intra-JK talks, said Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz was likely to soon announce the new status of the Legislative Council.
The Legislative Council has 36 members with six advisers who are in charge of different portfolios, Zaidi said.
Zaidi said more financial and administrative powers would be devolved to the northern areas once it gets Assembly status. He said the legal framework order was amended in 1999, empowering the NALC to legislate on provincial subjects.
The deputy speaker added that development in the area was picking up with assistance from the Federal government and steps were being taken to develop its hydro-electric potential
Talking of his experience in Delhi, Zaidi said he was touched by the “love and sincerity” of the people. “I will narrate my experiences back home,” he said.
Zaidi said antagonistic propaganda against India had reduced after President Pervez Musharraf came to power. “Musharraf has liberal thinking and opposes fundamentalism. Benazir Bhutto had also adopted a similar path,” he said.
Zaidi said the Pakistan flag was used on government buildings in northern areas. However, he said NAs was not mentioned in the Pakistan Constitution.
Unlike northern areas, the other part of PoK has a separate flag. Former PoK President and Prime Minister Mohammad Abdul Qayyum, who chaired the intra-JK talks, during his interaction with the media had said that the administrative pattern in northern areas was on the design left by the British.
However, he said people there should get the same rights as those in “Azad Kashmir.”
In a report released in September 2006, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan claimed that the government had deliberately not given constitutional status to northern areas as part of its strategy on Kashmir.
It said although the people of Northern Areas “ought” to be part of Pakistan, the authorities perceived that in the event of plebiscite in Kashmir, the vote of the people of NAs could be crucial as these areas were part of the state of Kashmir under the Dogra Maharaja.
