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THE US-Iran deal, electronic signatures and all, hardly signals a resounding peace. But corporate and social media are nevertheless awash with much chest-thumping about the government’s successful mediation. This can only drown out Pakistan’s domestic cauldron for so long. Indeed, the people’s frustrations are growing with each passing day.
The ongoing protests in Azad Kashmir are the latest manifestation of a social order breaking at the seams. Predictably, there have been attempts to dismiss the popular upsurge as the work of ‘traitors’, an accusation often deployed in Balochistan and even KP. To do it in AJK is to effectively acknowledge that even relatively integrated populations are increasingly less willing to buy standardised ideological tropes.
Much ado has been made about the demand for the abolition of 12 seats for refugees from Indian-occupied Kashmir. The problem, however, runs much deeper than the manipulation of AJK’s ramshackle system of political representation. When the first wave of protests kicked off in 2025, they were driven largely by the bleak economic prospects of the region’s young people, including those who are well educated.
