Multiparty Conference in Muzaffarabad to Discuss Refugee Seat Issue

MUZAFFARABAD: Ruling PPP and opposition PML-N leaders in Azad Jammu and Kashmir will jointly host a multiparty conference (MPC) in Muzaffarabad on Wednesday to gather perspectives from political and other stakeholders on a contentious demand by a rights movement to abolish 12 Legislative Assembly seats reserved for Pakistan-based refugees from Indian-occupied territory of the former princely state.

The decision was announced at a high‑level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Islamabad on Monday.

The meeting was attended by Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, PM’s Adviser on Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah, former PM Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, and former federal minister Qamar Zaman Kaira. AJK Prime Minister Faisal Mumtaz Rathore, Leader of the Opposition and PML‑N AJK President Shah Ghulam Qadir, and the party’s secretary general Chaudhry Tariq Farooq represented Kashmiri leadership.

Sources indicate that the participants agreed all political and religio‑political parties and organisations with a stake in the issue would be invited to attend the conference.

Forum aims to gather views on demand to abolish 12 refugee seats

Sources also said the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) would be invited to present its viewpoint before representatives of the broader political spectrum.

The meeting concluded that there would be “no compromise on the Pakistan government’s principled position on the issue of Kashmir,” the sources added, without disclosing further details.

The proposal to convene an MPC was first floated during a marathon but ultimately unsuccessful negotiations between a federal government team and the JAAC in Muzaffarabad on Saturday.

According to reliable sources, the federal team, with the backing of local PPP and PML‑N leaders, had presented four options to the committee’s core members: convening an MPC, holding a referendum to gauge public opinion, filing a reference before the AJK Supreme Court, or contesting the forthcoming elections on the issue to seek a mandate to abolish the refugee seats.

The JAAC leadership rejected all four proposals.

In response, the committee reiterated its demand for the abolition of the refugee seats, called for the election schedule to be postponed until a fresh population‑based delimitation could be carried out, and urged electoral reforms.

The proposal to hold an MPC was announced by Mr. Sanaullah shortly after the talks ended in a deadlock.

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