Protests in POJK rooted in exploitation of resources as Pakistan denies royalty on power plants

The protests all over Pakistan occupied Jammu Kashmir (PoJK) ended abruptly on May 14 evening after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced a slew of measures to defuse the simmering crisis. A day earlier, he had announced immediate release of Rs 230 billion for providing subsidies on wheat flour to PoJK residents. These monies were to be utilised by the PoJK Government, headed by Prime Minister Anwarul Haq Choudhary, for meeting some other demands put before him by the protestors.

Economically Priced Power

The protests had gathered momentum after May 9 and these were held at Palandhari, Rawalakot, Mirpur, Muzaffarabad and many other smaller towns. The protests were led by Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JKJAAC), an organisation that was formed in October-November 2023. The main demand of the JKJAAC is that electricity should be supplied all over PoJK at the rates at which it is generated locally.

Pak Government Remains Adamant

This is something that the Federal Government, headed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, was not willing to concede. Pakistan PM Shehbaz was also wary of similar demands for cheaper electricity being raised from provinces. However, details of the Government’s offer to protestors about cheaper electricity tariffs in PoJK have not been revealed so far. It is thus not clear as to how much concessions JAAC has been able to wrest from the Federal Government. Incidentally, to understand these protests regarding electricity bills, we need to know per unit production cost of the hydropower generated in PoJK, be it from the Mangla Dam, Neelum Jhelum project, Kohala project or other projects?

According to PoJK Prime Minister Anwarul Haq Choudhary, the production cost is between Rs 3 and Rs 4 per unit. However, some sections of consumers in PoJK are being billed at a rate between Rs 40 to Rs 50 per unit, at least ten times more than the production cost. Besides, Choudhary’s complaint was that the Federal Government uses devious tactics to deny fair compensation to PoJK Government and overcharges consumers for the electricity supplied.

How does it do so? Well, for starters it doesn’t pay proper royalty to the PoJK Government. PM Choudhary had met some Federal Ministers a couple of months ago in this connection. He had then pointed out that the Federal Government does not pay any royalty on the 1,000 MW Neelum Jhelum hydropower project. Besides, whatever little comes to the PoJK Government from the Federal Government is also patently unfair, he had said in his meetings at Islamabad.

We need to understand here that the denial of royalty and other monies to the PoJK by the Federal Government are done on the basis of it not being a province of Pakistan. It needs to be mentioned here that PoJK and Gilgit Baltistan are not provinces of Pakistan as defined in its Constitution. The four provinces of Pakistan, as per its Constitution are Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan.

Under the garb of this constitutional fraud committed on PoJK by Pakistan, the rates of royalty given to provinces are six to seven times more than non-provinces. Meaning thereby that if Punjab or KP, or Sindh gets Rs 6 as royalty then PoJK gets paid only Rs 1 or even lesser! This blatant fraud with PoJK has been happening with it right from 1967 onwards when the Mangla Dam started producing electricity. In this manner, by declaring it as a non-province, the Federal Government of Pakistan cheats PoJK of thousands of crores of rupees that it needs to pay as royalty.

That’s not all though. There are other underhand ways and means by which fair compensation and a source of revenue are denied to PoJK, to keep the people on a tight leash. Over the last six decades or more, this royalty, which could have filled the coffers of the PoJK treasury, has been thus systematically denied to it. Instead of being a revenue surplus region, a false narrative has been built by Pakistan that PoJK is dependent on the former for all its needs!

False Narrative

Right from 1947-48 , when PoJK was forcibly and illegally occupied by Pakistan, it has been peddling false narratives. Pakistan claims that PoJK has remained underdeveloped compared to its provinces as it doesn’t generate enough revenue to meet its development needs. However, the one resource which the PoJK has in abundance is water which flows through its rivers and streams. Presently, the PoJK region produces around 5,000 MW of electricity and its own power needs have been estimated between 300 MW to 400 MW. This means that the POJK region provides at least 4,000 MW to 4,500 MW to Pakistan at all times.

The Pakistan Government thus denies fair compensation to PoJK when it comes to making payments on account of royalty as also cess. However, when it comes to billing the PoJK residents, the same Pakistani Government says that they have to pay the same rates for electricity consumed which people of its provinces pay! This abject duplicity is being challenged by the POJK residents, who had uprooted power poles in many areas during 2023. The residents had then reasoned that they were poor people who could not pay exorbitant rates for electricity and hence had no use for electric poles.

Troubled by all this in September 2023, PoJK PM Anwarul Haq Choudhary had met Federal Finance Secretary Imdad Ullah Bosal. However, Choudhary was so angered by Bosal’s attitude that he had complained to various caretaker Ministers about him. Even now, Bosal remains unsympathetic and unyielding towards most of the demands raised by the PM of PoJK. Obviously, he has adopted this attitude towards PoJK due to signalling from PM Shehbaz Sharif and others.

Alarmed by the long marches, protests led by JAAC have been planned all over PoJK, mainly in Muzaffarabad, its capital, the PoJK Government offered to provide electricity at half the prevailing rates on May 13 (Monday). This could have meant scaling down the electricity rentals from Rs 50 per unit to Rs 25 per unit. However, the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) rejected this offer out of hand. The fact of the matter is that the JAAC is seeking power rates of Rs 4 to Rs 5 per unit, at least five times lesser than what the PoJK Government had offered.

A stalemate that persisted with protests regarding high electricity rentals may have been resolved for the time being. Other demands of the JAAC for providing subsidised wheat to PoJK residents and ending privileges of certain sections of powerful elites of society have been partially fulfilled. However, these piecemeal measures announced by the Federal Government and some by the PoJK Government are unlikely to lead to a permanent truce. n