July 10, 2003	Thursday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 9,1424

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MUZAFFARABAD, July 9: AJK President Sardar Mohammad Anwar Khan and Prime Minister Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan met on Wednesday for over two hours “to remove misunderstandings between them over different matters and work in consultation with each other for the strengthening of constitutional institutions and supremacy of merit.”

They met at President’s House almost six months after their last meeting, which was also held to iron out differences that exist between them since long.

The previous meeting was arranged on the intervention of the quarters that matter and sources believed that the same quarters were behind Wednesday’s meeting as well.

According to a brief handout, the two leaders discussed measures for the development of Azad Kashmir, effective working of constitutional institutions and improvement of the administrative machinery during the meeting.

“They also agreed to continue to hold meetings from time to time for consultations and understanding on vital state affairs with a view to turning Azad Kashmir into a model state with regard to strong constitutional institutions, supremacy of merit, development and effective administrative machinery,” it added.

Sources said the initially drafted handout had stated that “the two leaders would meet every month to hold consultations to carry out the entire administrative and developmental affairs.” However, the sentence was changed following objection by the prime minister, who maintained that it amounted to changing the rules of business, whereby the premier was not bound to consult the president in every administrative and developmental affair.

Of late, a section of press had quoted the president as alleging that corruption to the tune of billions of rupees had been committed in Azad Kashmir. The accusations were exploited by the opposition.

In a reference to those allegations, the prime minister had on Monday criticized “rumour-mongering and disinformation” and said he had no remedy for those who were informing the government through newspapers about corruption.

Sources said the president complained to the prime minister that he was not being consulted on important official matters while Mr Hayat complained that President’s House was not disposing the files in time, which was obstructing the smooth functioning of the government.

The president had refused to sanction the establishment of the AJK Supreme Court’s sitting in the prime minister’s hometown, Kotli, though he had agreed in principle with the proposal to that effect.

However, he had approved the sitting of the apex court in his own district, Poonch.

The president had also declined to approve the appointment of former AJK chief justice Raja Khurshid Kiani as AJK Council of Islamic Ideology’s chairman. Mr Kiani is related to the prime minister.

However, after the meeting the president approved a summary regarding the appointment of Chaudhry Mohammad Rasheed as AJK Services Tribunal chairman. Mr Rasheed, who is the prime minister’s son-in-law, was the district and sessions judge in Kotli. The file for his appointment was pending in the president’s office for a couple of months.