Amid a shutter-down strike and protests in the region, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry on Saturday directed the government to withdraw the controversial ordinance immediately.
The President, in a letter to Azad Jammu and Kashmir Prime Minister Chaudhry Anwar-ul-Haq, directed the government to release all persons detained under the “Peaceful Assembly and Public Order Ordinance 2024”.
The statement said that the government of Azad Jammu and Kashmir immediately started action on the instructions of the President.
The President’s directive came after the Joint Public Action Committee (JAAC)’s long march against the ordinance and its arrested activists to the entry points of Azad Jammu and Kashmir failed to negotiate with the government-constituted committee. are
The wheel jam and shutter down strike called by JAAC entered the third day in several cities of the region and markets, businesses and shopping centers remained closed. Meanwhile, the committee has also given a call for a long march today.
JAAC, an alliance of civil society activists advocating rights in the region, is protesting against the “Peaceful Assembly and Public Order Ordinance, 2024”, which was suspended by the AJK Supreme Court this week.
Despite the suspension of the ordinance, JAAC core committee member Shaukat Nawaz Mir said the strike would continue until the government formally revoked the ordinance and released its workers.
Mir had also said that further talks would take place tomorrow (Sunday) while the committee would also call for a “surrounding” of the legislative assembly in the region.
After negotiations between the ministerial team and the committee failed, the protesters have moved towards Barkot’s entry point. Entry points of Poonch division and Kohala and Palindri entry points have also been blocked by protesters.
Apart from this, protesters also staged a dharna at the junction of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Azad Jammu and Kashmir, while others from Rawalkot, Bagh and Dhirkot reached the Kohala entry point.
On the other hand, Information Minister Pir Mazhar Saeed claimed that the government has released all the prisoners.
He said that the negotiations on the ordinance have not failed, adding that a committee has been formed which includes people from all schools of thought which will implement the recommendations of the committee.
It should be noted that the Azad Jammu and Kashmir government had banned protest rallies, processions and demonstrations through a Presidential Ordinance a month ago and violation of the same can lead to seven years imprisonment.
On December 3, the Azad Kashmir Supreme Court suspended the government’s controversial Presidential Ordinance.