Get the latest news and updates from Dawn
MUZAFFARABAD: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir Supreme Court has observed that any amendment in the region’s constitution was “not a concession to be wrested” from the government, as the court issued its advice on a presidential reference, which emerged on Sunday.
The advisory opinion came in response to a reference filed by acting AJK President Chaudhry Latif Akbar under Article 46-A of the Interim Constitution Act, 1974 after the recently proscribed Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) demanded the abolition of 12 refugee seats in the legislative assembly ahead of the July 27 elections.
The 12 seats are reserved for refugees from Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, who settled in mainland Pakistan after 1947. JAAC alleged that these seats were often used by mainstream Pakistani political parties to influence the formation of governments in Muzaffarabad.
The presidential reference had sought answers to five key questions over the constitutional status of the refugee seats, the legislature’s competence to introduce a fundamental constitutional amendment at the present stage, the constitutional limits of the rights of assembly and association, and the state’s obligation to protect the electoral process and reject extra-constitutional demands.
