External Affairs Minister Subramaniam Jaishankar on May 7, 2024 said that every political party in the country is committed to ensuring that POJK (Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir) which is a part of India, returns to India and that the POJK issue has come to the minds of the people’s thinking after revocation Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir which was considered a difficult decision.
Interacting with students from Gargi College, the minister said people assumed that Article 370 couldn’t be changed as the politics of the day had driven it deeply into public consciousness. Article 370, which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir. Was scrapped by the BJP led government in August 2019.
“Take even Article 370, people just assume 370 cannot be changed and this is something which we have to accept because the politics of the day had driven it very deeply into the consciousness. Now we see once we change it, then the entire ground situation changes,” Jaishankar said.
“All I can say about the POJK is that there is a parliament resolution. Every political party of this country is committed to ensure POJK, which is a part of India returns to India This actually is our national commitment, but I do want to say one thing. I didn’t get people asking us about these ten years ago or even five years ago, it is when we put 370 to rest, now people have understood yes POJK is also important,” he added.
“What has happened today is that because we finally have taken the right decision on 370 in the minds of our own people today, the POJK issue has come to the front. As they say, the first pre-requisite for something happening is first must be in your thoughts, once it is in your thoughts, then rest will happen certainly at one point of time,” he said.
Meanwhile, in the wake of the deteriorating economic condition of Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (POJK), political and human rights organisation have invoked a long march and called for a sit in on May 11 to raise the issues faced by the locals in Muzaffarabad in POJK.
The United Kashmir Peoples National Union Party and the Joint Awami Action Committee in a joint statement released earlier, announced that the march will raise issues like skyrocketing inflation severe unemployment, revocation of subsidies on wheat and flour unjustified load shedding exploitation of POJK natural resources and special and unjust privileges being given to civil bureaucracy in POJK.
Stressing that people have not received their wages and pensions, Amjad Ayub Mirza, an POJK activist said, “And now to sabotage the sit in, the Pakistani administration has ordered the puppet PM of POJK Chaudhary Anwar-hul-Haq to issue a request for deployment of Punjab Police force and frontal corps in POJK.”
