PoK rights activist Amjad Ayub Mirza supports JAAC protest against Pak administration

Exiled Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) rights activist, Amjad Ayub Mirza expressed his support for the Joint Awami Action Committee's (JAAC) torch-bearing protest to raise their voices against the issues faced by the general public under the Pakistani administration.

A political activist from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), Amjad Ayub Mirza, expressed his support for the Joint Awami Action Committee's (JAAC) torch-bearing protest to raise their voices against the issues faced by the general public under the Pakistani administration. In the video statement, Mirza stated that "for the past nine months, our movement for civil disobedience has been going on but to no avail. Pakistan is not ready to accept our demands which are related to the reversal of charges and taxes on electricity bills. And restoring subsidies on wheat and other goods. The subsidies that were cut should be reversed and restored, as they are crucial for essential goods that we require daily."

He further informed that "now, because we are heading towards the month of Ramadan, so there is going to be a break and protests, but the dharnas will continue in Rawalakot, Muzaffarabad, Kotli, Bagh and Bhimber. However, immediately after Ramadan, we are going to commence a long march on May 11, 2024, from Rawalakot division and Mirpur division towards Muzaffarabad." "This long march will be towards the legislative assembly in Muzaffarabad, ending up in a sit in at the assembly. And this sit in will continue until our demands are met. This is the final call for the people of POK to gather their strength and to show their resilience, and we will not budge until our demands are met," Ayub Mirza said.

Previously, Mirza had called out Pakistan's PM-elect Shehbaz Sharif for raking up (India-administered) Kashmir in his victory speech in the National Assembly, saying he spouted 'lies' about the region. Coming down heavily on the PM-designate over what he said were factually incorrect claims about Kashmir, the activist said the former doesn't have the 'guts' to acknowledge and own up to the 'humanitarian crisis' in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. "In Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, people en masse are starving. The government servants have not been paid wages for months. The pensioners have been waiting for their pensions for nearly a year now. In several departments and several sectors of the economy, people working in them, have not been paid their wages. There is no flower. There is no medicine in the hospitals. There are no snake bite or dog bite vaccines available in the hospitals," the activist said in a personalised video address from Scotland.

"There is no rural health centre in Pakistani-occupied Jammu and Kashmir that has even got a dispenser there to cater for the needs of the local villagers. Their education system has collapsed totally. There is not a single country that recognizes the degrees obtained by Pakistani-occupied Jammu-Kashmir students as legitimate. The situation is so dire that on March 5th, for the fourth time, the people of Pakistani-occupied Jammu and Kashmir will be on the streets protesting. But the Prime Minister of Pakistan did not have the guts, or the courage to recognize the humanitarian crisis that the people of Pakistani-occupied Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan are going through," he added. He claimed further that the government, under the leadership of Shehbaz Sharif, would not be able to represent the "true interests of the people of PoK."

"He (Pak PM) did not have the guts to say a word about the electricity boycott campaign that has been going on since August last year. He did not mention anything for development or for providing wheat and flour to the people of Gilgit-Baltistan. The people of Pakistani-occupied Jammu Kashmir and Pakistani-occupied Gilgit-Baltistan have faced a siege for 76 years by the Pakistan army and the Pakistan military establishment," he said. Therefore, the people of Pakistani-occupied Jammu, Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan are very clear in their minds that this government, this new government under the leadership of Shahbaz Sharif, Prime Minister, is not going to represent the true interests of the people of Pakistani-occupied Jammu and Kashmir," he added. (ANI)

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