ISLAMABAD (Kashmir English): Azad Kashmir’s most senior minister, Mian Abdul Waheed, on Friday clarified the inclusion of refugee members in the Standing Committees of the Azad Kashmir Legislative Assembly after the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) claimed that the move has violated the 39-point agreement.
Addressing the media, the minister stated that an agreement reached with the JAAC stipulated that refugee members would not be included in the cabinet, which has been fulfilled, but there was nothing about their inclusion in standing committees.
Waheed said that “the government spokesperson has already expressed his opinion on this matter, and as far as I understand it, whether the seats of refugees will be abolished or not has not been decided yet.”
He said that refugee MLAs are still members of the house, and the right to be members of standing committees cannot be taken away from them, as the responsibility has been given to them by the government and the house.
Mian Waheed said that the representatives of the action committee should have sat with us and told us how the agreement was violated.
It should be remembered that yesterday, an important meeting of the committee regarding the seats of refugees in the assembly was held in Islamabad, but the representatives of the action committee did not attend it.
Representatives of the Awami Action Committee claim that the agreement has been violated by making the refugee MLAs the chairmen of the standing committees because the privileges of the chairman of the standing committees are equal to those of a minister.
Earlier, the federal government had formed a nine-member high-level committee to decide the future of the refugee seats, including representatives from the governments of Pakistan, Azad Kashmir, and the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC).
