MUZAFFARABAD: Traders and transporters in Muzaffarabad division announced on Saturday that markets and public transport would resume normal operations from Sunday after the administration assured them of security and uninterrupted fuel supplies, signalling the first major break in the shutdown observed during the ongoing agitation in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).
At a joint press conference at Central Press Club, representatives of traders’ bodies and the transporters’ union also distanced themselves from the recently proscribed Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC).
They alleged that the movement, which they had initially backed over public issues such as subsidised electricity and flour, had deviated from its original objectives after June 9 and was now pursuing a political and constitutional agenda beyond the mandate of traders and transporters.
The regional administration and the JAAC have been at odds over the past month over various issues, most notably the committee’s demand to abolish the 12 seats in the region’s Legislative Assembly that are reserved for refugees from Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir who settled in mainland Pakistan after 1947. The resulting situation from the JAAC sit-ins had brought various parts of the region to a standstill earlier this month.
Saturday’s press conference was addressed by Gohar Kashmiri, senior vice chairman of the Markazi Anjuman-i-Tajiran Muzaffarabad; Raja Abrar Mustafa, president of the Madina Market Traders Association; and Khawaja Azam Rasool, president of the Divisional Transport Operators Union.
They were joined by office-bearers of several other trade bodies, including Banaras Zaman Bhatti of the Barbers and Beauticians Association and Raja Asif of the Poultry Dealers Association.
They urged protesters to resolve outstanding issues through dialogue, appealed to traders to reopen their businesses and called for the restoration of internet services to facilitate commercial activity.
As news of the announcement spread by word of mouth, shops in several neighbourhoods of Muzaffarabad began reopening on Saturday afternoon, although business activity remained thin in many areas.
Meanwhile, in Poonch division, more than 100 residents staged a demonstration in Hajira, demanding that JAAC activists remove blockades from the two main roads linking the town with Rawalakot and Abbaspur.
They warned that if the activists did not reopen the roads, they would clear them themselves on Sunday and also reopen businesses in the town.
During the Muzaffarabad presser, Kashmiri said traders had played a key role in the JAAC movement while it focused on securing relief for ordinary citizens, winning reduced electricity tariffs and subsidised flour. However, he said traders had not been consulted when the movement changed course and could not associate themselves with developments after June 9 — when the JAAC had called for a strike.
He said the inclusion of the issue of the 12 reserved seats for refugees from occupied Jammu and Kashmir in the charter of demands had shifted the movement’s focus, even though it was a constitutional matter that should be settled through legal and democratic means.
“We do not understand why there was such insistence on this issue. Negotiations require flexibility from both sides if disputes are to be resolved,” he said.
Maintaining that their movement had always remained peaceful, Kashmiri said challenging the writ of the state was unacceptable and urged traders to pursue their outstanding issues through negotiations with the government rather than confrontation.
Meanwhile, Mustafa said traders had backed the campaign for nearly three years while it remained focused on basic public issues, including affordable flour, electricity and healthcare.
“The issue of the 12 reserved seats is a constitutional matter that can only be resolved by the elected assembly. It is not for traders to decide,” he said.
“We stood with the [JAAC] as long as it remained on the right course. But after it was declared proscribed and matters began moving in another direction, we collectively decided that we would neither remain part of it nor continue supporting it,” he added.
Stressing that Pakistan was their country, Mustafa said traders respected its institutions and armed forces and appealed to young people not to allow themselves to be drawn into unrest.
He also urged the authorities to restore internet services and ensure uninterrupted diesel and petrol supplies, saying businesses were suffering because of the disruptions.
Rasool, who also served as administrator of Muzaffarabad Municipal Corporation, said transporters had joined the movement in its early stages and that he himself had been a member of its core committee. However, they parted ways after JAAC’s demands continued to expand despite the acceptance of key economic demands.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry has maintained that 35 out of 38 demands of the JAAC, agreed between it and the government last October, had been fulfilled.
Rasool explained that transport services had remained suspended not because transporters supported the strike, but because road blockades and fuel shortages had exposed valuable public transport vehicles to the risk of damage.
“Now that the administration has assured us of fuel supplies and security, public transport across Muzaffarabad division will resume from Sunday,” the president of the Divisional Transport Operators Union said.
Rasool added that transporters could never support any movement directed against Pakistan or its armed forces, adding that constitutional questions such as the 12 reserved seats had nothing to do with the concerns of traders and transporters, which centred on taxation, municipal services and business-related issues.
He urged participants in the Rawalakot sit-in to disassociate themselves from those whom he accused of hijacking the movement to pursue a separate agenda, and called for preserving AJK’s tradition of peace and social harmony.
Ahead of the July 27 elections in AJK, the JAAC had called for widespread protests demanding the abolition of 12 seats in the region’s Legislative Assembly reserved for refugees from occupied Kashmir who settled in mainland Pakistan after 1947.
On June 5, the JAAC was declared a proscribed organisation by the regional government and placed under the First Schedule of the region’s anti-terrorism act (ATA).
A day later, AJK authorities launched a crackdown on the JAAC, arresting scores of its leaders and later placing 147 of its activists on the Fourth Schedule of the ATA.
