MIRPUR (AJK)-Sardar Khalid Ibrahim Khan, an opposition member of the Azad Jammu & Kashmir Legislative Assembly, Friday demanded indiscriminate accountability of corrupt officials across the state.
He was addressing a gathering of local lawyers hosted by Azad Jammu & Kashmir Supreme Court Bar Association.
Sardar Khalid Ibrahim Khan, who also heads Jammu & Kashmir People's Party, continued that the historical declaration of October 24, 1947 unequivocally and clearly determined the status and role of Azad Jammu & Kashmir as the base camp of the Kashmir freedom struggle. He said we have to move ahead in the line of this historical declaration.
He said that those involved in massive corruption, malpractices and irregularities in plundering the national assets during the previous and sitting AJK governments be brought to justice through an indiscriminate process of accountability to recover the digested public money and to deposit it to the public exchequer.
Referring to the ongoing accountability process in Pakistan, the Kashmiri leader observed that the ongoing process of accountability could change the fate of the country if it was exercised with good and sincere faith. He said that no doubt the foundations of Pakistan were strong enough - yet the direction was required to be brought on correct lines.
He demanded the holding of indiscriminate accountability in AJK since 1947 in order to bring those involved in corruption, malpractices, irregularities and misuse of powers to justice. He said that the ongoing accountability be exercised from lower to bottom indiscriminately in the country. "We should not be worried and upset of the current affairs of Pakistan," he said adding that Pakistan stands on strong footings in all required lines being a sovereign and economically strong nation. Despite this, he suggested, "we should focus to keep our direction wise."
He observed that only neat and clean and principled politics could get Pakistan and AJK rid of the crises. He observed that the politics in AJK could not leave without having been affected by the internal political affairs of the country - since all small and major political parties of Pakistan existed with their units in Azad Jammu & Kashmir, he underlined.
Former chief justice of Azad Jammu & Kashmir High Court and Jammu & Kashmir Liberation League's President Justice (r) Abdul Majeed Mallick, President AJK Supreme Court Bar Association Syed Nishat Hussain Kazmi, newly elected Secretary General of the AJK SCBA Mian Sultan Mahmood Advocate, President Mirpur District Bar Association Ch Shabir Sharif Advocate, senior jurist Raja Munsif Dad Advocate, President AJK High Court Bar Association Razaq Kashmiri Advocate and others also addressed the ceremony.
The speakers called for early peaceful settlement of Kashmir in line with the UN resolutions. They invited the attention of the international community towards increased human rights abuses at the hands of the Indian occupational forces in Indian occupied Jammu & Kashmir.
The Kashmiri lawyers vowed to continue struggle for freedom of occupied Jammu & Kashmir and to ensure the supremacy of law and justice in AJK for the emergence of a healthy welfare society in Azad Jammu & Kashmir.