During rainy season, veterinary doctors issue repeated warnings about foot and mouth disease which can hit domestic cattle hard and have serious consequences. The disease affects cattle, swine, sheep, goats and other cloven-hoofed ruminants. It is a Trans-boundary Animal Disease (TAD) that can disrupt regional and international trade, in cattle. Not that the threat of this disease spreading due to unhygienic conditions can be ruled out in other seasons.
An English phrase which sounds eerily similar is foot in the mouth, or putting foot in the mouth. According to Cambridge dictionary, to “put your foot in your mouth’’ is an idiom which means to “say or do something that you should not have, especially something that embarrasses someone else’’.
The difference between the two, foot and mouth disease, and foot in the mouth disease, is not very difficult to discern. The first afflicts the four-legged variety and the later phrase is reserved for people like us, bipeds or two legged types. Some of us excel and can often prove to be living incarnations of the phrase `foot in the mouth’ and repeated behaviour helps identify such specimens easily.
The fulminations of Federal Defence Minister of Pakistan Khwaja Asif during Operation Sindoor, and his repeated anti-India rhetoric, without any context, or/and logic, makes him easily identifiable. Of being afflicted with `foot in the mouth’ disease.
In his most recent outburst, Khawaja Asif has justified the killings of ordinary protesters in POJK by direct firing from the security forces. He said that he viewed people supporting Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) as “enemies like India”. Speaking to a TV channel, Khwaja Asif defended the government’s actions and made no distinction between India and those protesting against the administration in Pakistan Occupied Jammu Kashmir (POJK).
“I put the protesters in the same category as India and consider them also as enemies like India,” he said in reply to a question of firing at demonstrators in which 20 people are reported to have died and dozens were injured. There was no possibility of a dialogue with the protesters as they were “enemies of Pakistan.”, Khwaja Asif asserted.
Rigging, violence mark 1st phase polling
In the first phase of polling held in Mirpur division of POJK on Monday, large scale rigging and violence was reported. The second and next phase is scheduled for August 2, covering Muzaffarabad division and 12 refugee seats. This is likely to be the most challenging phase of polling as the JAAC protests are centred around the demand for abolition of the refugee seats, which have played the role of Dirty Dozen in POJK for decades.
Incidentally, the members occupying these seats are invariably affiliated to the ruling party at the Federal level. Going by the past experiences, it is most likely that Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N may get a majority of these seats. If that happens, it will go a long way to strengthen JAAC narrative and in turn, its support base, making it stronger in the process.
The third and last round of voting will be held on August 10 for Poonch division. This is the first time that general elections in POJK are being held in phases. As per the preliminary results, the PML-N appears in pole position, with its main contender the PPP in second place.
While a more complete picture will emerge after the consolidated results are in, there are concerns that the announcement of results in the first phase will impact voters’ choices in the subsequent rounds. This paper is of the opinion that even if the security situation mandated phased polls, the results should have been announced when the entire exercise was complete, Dawn newspaper said in its editorial published on Wednesday morning.
POJK elections lack legitimacy, have no credibility
Trust deficit and lack of credibility, with independence of the electoral authorities being questioned, have come to the fore prominently in these polls. Former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek Insaf (PTI), which formed the government in Pakistan Occupied Jammu Kashmir (POJK) in 2021, has boycotted these elections asserting that in the present circumstances, fair polls are not at all possible.
Besides, the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) was willing to put some candidates as independents. However, these independent candidates backed by the banned JAAC were not allowed to contest and that eroded the credibility of the poll process further. Some less prominent JAAC leaders are also believed to have tried to enter the electoral arena as independents. However, on one pretext or the other, their electoral papers were not accepted and this has only served to enhance bitterness towards the Pakistan authorities.
Although the JAAC has been proscribed, declared unlawful under the anti-terrorism law and many of its leaders taken into custody, it undoubtedly commands widespread support among people of POJK. The 38-point people-centric and anti-elite charter of JAAC demands has garned it unprecedented support, including among the youth, particularly what is often referred to as Gen-Z.
It needs to be emphasised that the absence of the PTI and banned JAAC, two popular forces, one a political party and another a group enjoying support among all sections of the society, will impact the legitimacy and representative character of the legislative assembly.
Pakistan kills Kashmiris on both sides, X user says, “Khalid Baig (@KhalidBaig85) wrote on X: In Pakistan Occupied Jammu Kashmir (POJK), it is the Pakistani Army that is killing Kashmiris. In Kashmir, India, it is Pakistani terrorists and Pak backed terrorists that have killed thousands of Kashmiris. State of Pakistan has a fetish for killing Kashmiris on both sides of the border.”
If and when these elections are over, the new assembly as also the Federal government of Pakistan will have to face the question of giving representation to POJK people in constitutional bodies in the country. It goes without saying that POJK people, especially the youth and the Gen-Z segment, are higly dissatisfied with the current arrangement as the POJK region has no representation in constitutional forums.
In 1947 when an October invasion on the Princely state of Jammu & Kashmir ruled by Maharaja Hari Singh was carried out by Pakistan, and large parts of it usurped, POJK has been powerless in Federal structures. Its people can neither choose anyone for representation in the National Assembly (akin to the Lok Sabha in India) or the Senate (like Rajya Sabha).
