SRINAGAR: Moderate Hurriyat Conference on Monday opposed the recommendations of the Joint Parliamentary Standing Committee (JPSC) on Home Affairs for the permanent settlement of West Pakistan refugees in Jammu and Kashmir, saying that it was an attempt to tamper with the demographics of the state.
“The Hurriyat Conference is extremely concerned by what seems to be a vigorous effort to meddle with the demographics of Jammu and Kashmir to change the facts on the ground with the eventual aim of subverting the people’s right of self-determination,” it said in a statement after a meeting here.
It described the Centre’s move as “forcible integration and assimilation of the internationally disputed state”.
Around 5,764 families consisting of 47,215 persons, who migrated from West Pakistan, have got settled in different areas of Jammu, Kathua and Rajouri districts decades back, as per the union Home Ministry data. However, they are not permanent residents of the state as per the J&K Constitution.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq chaired an extraordinary joint meeting of the Executive, General Council and Working Committee members of the Hurriyat here on the issue of recommendations made by JPSC to grant Jammu & Kashmir Permanent Resident (State Subject) Status to refugees from erstwhile West Pakistan.
A statement released after stated that the APHC unequivocally and vehemently opposes the recommendation recently made by the Indian Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs to grant Jammu & Kashmir Permanent Resident (State Subject) Status to refugees from erstwhile West Pakistan.
Similarly, the APHC has taken cognizance of and vehemently opposes similar proposals that have been spelled out in the BJPs Vision Document for Jammu & Kashmir released in November 2014, including the granting of citizenship rights, including right to vote in Assembly and local-bodies elections, abolishing the custodian department and allot the evacuee property to the occupants of the said properties.
The statement i states that while it is the purview of the Indian Parliament and Government of India to grant the West Pakistan Refugees Indian citizenship and any economic concessions or benefits it deems fit, it has no legal standing or right to grant these refugees Permanent Resident (State Subject) Status in Jammu & Kashmir or any rights related to this status, such as the right to own land or immovable property in Jammu & Kashmir.
APHC said that with regards to the refugees who came to Jammu & Kashmir from erstwhile West Pakistan, they are not permanent residents (state subjects) of Jammu & Kashmir. Neither are they eligible to ever become permanent residents (state subjects) of Jammu & Kashmir. This is a legal reality and has nothing to do with any communal mindset. The West Pakistan refugees have no right to Permanent Resident (State Subject) Status in the same way that the thousands of Tibetan Muslim Refugees who have been living in Kashmir since 1960 have no right to Permanent Resident (State Subject) Status in Jammu & Kashmir.
The policy statement of APHC stated that this is not a communal issue nor is it a so-called Jammu VS. Kashmir this is a Jammu AND Kashmir issue. The APHC cautions those parties that are trying to divide and polarize the people of the state to desist from pursuing such dangerous agendas.
The APHC views both the Indian Parliament Standing Committees recommendations and the BJPs stated policy agenda points on the West Pakistan Refugees as an aggressive attempt to change Jammu & Kashmirs demographics. Such moves are fraught with dangers. If carried out, such decisions will be regarded as no less than a direct frontal attack on the unique legal status of Jammu & Kashmir, on the protections that all citizens of Jammu & Kashmir (irrespective of religion or region) enjoy as Permanent Residents (State Subjects), and on the people of Jammu & Kashmirs right of self-determination.
The APHC also vehemently opposes the BJPs stated policy agenda to abolish the custodian department and to allot the evacuee properties to non-state subjects and others who are occupying their properties since 1947/48. Such a move is also illegal and would be a violation of the Right of Return which all those Kashmiris who were forced to migrate to the other side of the ceasefire line are entitled to. Nobody has the right to confiscate the property and dispossess any permanent resident (state subject) of Jammu & Kashmir of their lands, including those whose property is currently under the custodian department.
Jammu & Kashmirs state subject laws were originally put in place in 1927 and have served as a basic protection of the rights of the people of Jammu & Kashmir. APHC vows to stridently resist any attempt to implement these illegal and nefarious plans which are in violation of the legal rights and protections that all permanent residents (state subjects) of Jammu & Kashmir are entitled to.
The APHC cautions the Government of India and the BJP leadership from proceeding ahead with any step to violate, dilute or undermine the legal rights of the permanent residents (state subjects) of Jammu & Kashmir.
The APHC expects all regional political parties whether inside or outside the assembly,who believe in the demographic integrity of the state to come out clearly against these moves and to ensure that the Kashmiri identity is protected. The APHC and the people of Kashmir are watching to see what role they play with regards to this most vital issue.
In light of these increasing threatsplanned, recommended or otherwise publicly committed – to Jammu & Kashmirs identity and legal status in violation of the legal rights and protections of its permanent residents (state subjects), the APHC has resolved to reach out to all other pro-freedom parties, members of civil society and the legal fraternity in Jammu & Kashmir to mount a united, effective and sustained effort for the Defence of Jammu & Kashmir. We will also reach out to civil society in Jammu and Ladakh to join in this effort as it is their rights that are also under threat.
Meanwhile National Conference has threatened agitation if any such move was initiated by the Centre on the recommendations of a Parliamentary Standing Committee.
“We will launch an agitation if that happens. We will protest it,” NC leader Mohammad Akbar Lone told reporters while commenting on the recommendations of the Committee.
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