August 10, 2002	Saturday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 30,1423

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MUZAFFARABAD, Aug 9: AJK President Sardar Mohammad Anwar Khan on Friday assured a delegation from People’s Party that his role regarding the upraising of Mangla Dam will be “people friendly.”

“My role regarding the Mangla Dam extension plan will not be pro-establishment but pro-people,” the delegation, comprising Legislative Assembly member Gulzar Fatima and AJKPP Deputy Chief Organizer Shoukat Javed Mir quoted the president as telling them.

The delegation, besides taking up a number of other issues with the president, drew his attention towards the “unrest” prevailing in the southern region of Azad Kashmir due to Mangla Dam’s extension plan.

According to Shoukat Mir, the president said he had been approached by the people of Mirpur to ask what course they should adopt in the situation and he had assured them that he would plead their interests.

The president said efforts were made to make his office disputed, but he showed tolerance in the larger national interest. “People of Azad Kashmir have great expectations from my office and I am earnestly trying to come up to them.”

He said the “opposition in Azad Kashmir was big and effective and it had every right to point out steps, if any, being taken in violation of the constitution and law.” “I equally respect the government and the opposition and believe that their differences are part of democracy. But it is my responsibility to maintain checks and balances to keep things going in proper direction.”

The president told the delegation that the monitoring process in Azad Kashmir would be strengthened and he had talked to the concerned quarters in this regard.

He assured Ms Fatima that he would provide special grant for purchase of land for new graveyards and construction of Eidgah here.