MUZAFFARABAD: An ‘All Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Bar Associations Conference’ has expressed serious dismay over the alleged injudicious behaviour of the Azad Kashmir government vis-à-vis the ongoing rights movements across the state and called upon it to accept the charters of demands of inflation-stricken people to provide much needed relief to them.
The conference was held under the aegis of District Bar Association (DBA) Mirpur in the lakeside city on Saturday evening, and its participants reiterated their resolve to continue their support and active participation in the peaceful rights movements as part of their obligation as an important civil society segment.
Participants of the conference decided and declared on the occasion that a state-wide lawyers’ convention would be held in Mirpur on December 23 to call forth all shades of opinion from the legal fraternity members.
Speaking on the occasion, the legal community leaders made it clear that the people across the liberated territory were struggling peacefully for the solution of their basic problems in accordance with their legal and constitutional rights.
They demanded that the [AJK] prime minister and his ‘army of ministers’ should give up their luxuries at the cost of poor taxpayers and divert the funds thus saved on the welfare of the masses.
The speakers made it clear that they were not averse to talks with the government but they wanted the exercise to be on the basis of equality and result-oriented.
They maintained that since electricity in AJK was generated from water, people could not accept the tariff for electricity generated from fuel.
The rulers should understand the situation and provide electricity and flour to the AJK people either at the rates prevalent in India occupied Kashmir or Gilgit-Baltistan, they said.
When contacted, DBA Mirpur president Chaudhry Kamran Tariq told Dawn on Sunday that except for Bhimber city, representatives, mostly presidents and secretaries general, of almost all bar associations of state were either present in person or in contact with him on phone during the conference.
They also included the presidents of the AJK Supreme Court Bar Association and the AJK High Court Bar Association, he said.__dawn.com
