ISLAMABAD — The highest court docket in Pakistan-administered Kashmir dominated Sunday that 12 legislative seats reserved for Kashmiri refugees dwelling in Pakistan are constitutionally protected and can’t be abolished and not using a constitutional modification.
The ruling strengthened the regional authorities’s place in a dispute that has fueled weeks of protests forward of subsequent month’s meeting elections.
The Supreme Court docket of Azad Jammu and Kashmir issued the opinion in response to a presidential reference searching for steerage on constitutional questions surrounding the refugee seats and the upcoming vote for the 45-member Legislative Meeting.
The landmark ruling removes authorized uncertainty over the election course of, stating that public order can’t be disrupted within the identify of protest. It got here a day after police arrested dozens of supporters of the Joint Awami Motion Committee , or JAAC, a gaggle the regional authorities lately banned over alleged threats to public order and safety.
The group has held violent protests in recent times and mentioned it plans to carry an analogous protest subsequent week to strain the federal government to simply accept its calls for.
The refugee seats on the heart of the dispute are reserved for individuals who migrated to Pakistan from Indian-administered Kashmir many years in the past, with hopes of returning if the long-standing dispute over the area is resolved.
Kashmir is split between Pakistan and India, each of which declare the Himalayan territory in full and have fought two wars over it since independence from British colonial rule in 1947.
The court docket dominated that meeting elections have to be held inside the constitutionally prescribed interval and that political disputes, protests or constitutional disagreements can’t be used to delay the vote.
It maintained that the refugee seats take pleasure in constitutional safety and may solely be altered by a constitutional modification.
The court docket additionally endorsed the federal government view that unresolved constitutional questions ought to be addressed by the Legislative Meeting. Whereas recognizing peaceable protest as a constitutional proper, the judges mentioned actions that disrupt public life, block roads, intimidate others or intervene with constitutional processes don’t take pleasure in authorized safety.
The opinion bolsters the federal government’s argument that it lacks authority to abolish the refugee seats by government motion — a place repeatedly superior by Prime Minister Faisal Mumtaz Rathore throughout negotiations with JAAC.
Tensions have escalated between the regional authorities and the protest motion forward of an illustration deliberate for Tuesday. Authorities banned JAAC earlier this week, accusing it of posing a risk to public order.
Rathore mentioned Saturday the federal government had accepted 36 of the group’s 38 calls for final yr after negotiations involving JAAC representatives, regional officers and Pakistan’s federal authorities. He mentioned the 2 remaining calls for contain constitutional provisions that may solely be modified by the Legislative Meeting.
The group alleged Saturday that considered one of its members was killed when police opened fireplace. Kashmir police denied the declare, saying armed males had fired in a single day on officers after being signaled to cease their car.
Final yr, clashes between protesters and safety forces killed a number of folks, together with law enforcement officials.
