MUZAFFARABAD, July 11: The Azad Kashmir government has announced to observe “Accession (of Kashmir) to Pakistan Week” from July 13 to 19 — a move which has been criticised by the opposition parties and an alliance of militant groups as a “gimmick”.

Announcing setting up of committees at ‘central, district and international’ level to make arrangements for organising various activities during the week, the government through a notification has directed all departments to take requisite steps in this regard.

A ‘coordination committee’ comprising mostly government officials was, however, the focal point of sponsoring and organising all these activities.

According to the notification, the heads of all civic bodies in AJK have been asked to provide 215,000 Pakistani flags to the “celebrations committee” to be hoisted at different places during the week. However, no financial head has been mentioned to make spending for the purpose.

One of the events cited in the notification is a rally of youth/students to commence from Faizabad Rawalpindi on July 13 and conclude at Muzaffarabad on July 19.

Sources told Dawn that several government departments had been directed to spare one or two vehicles for the coordination committee to be used by it for different programmes during the week.

Kashmir (Liberation) Cell has been directed among other tasks to ensure that the flags of Pakistan, AJK and Muslim Conference hoisted on all houses, official buildings, intersections and vehicles etc on July 19.

However, what appeared more intriguing is the inclusion of heads of main opposition parties, including leader of the opposition in AJK Assembly, in the “Central Political Committee,” headed by senior minister Malik Mohammad Nawaz, apparently without their consent.

When contacted by Dawn on Friday, leader of the opposition Sardar Qamaruz Zaman remarked that the opposition had nothing to do with what the “gimmicks of the government designed to hoodwink, rather, blackmail the government, people, civilian institutions and the armed forces of Pakistan.

“The Muslim Conference government is using our name to divert public attention from its transgressions and we vehemently condemn its ulterior motives,” he said.

Mr Zaman said it was ironical that “accession to Pakistan” was being observed by a setup which was bent upon igniting anti- Pakistan sentiments in this region.

He also feared financial corruption in “wasteful spending of public money on personal and political projection” in the name of Kashmir’s accession to Pakistan.

He said the earthquake victims were still languishing under the open sky or in shabby tents but the government was wasting money on pomp.

He called upon the federal government to take stock of the situation in AJK.

An alliance of Kashmiri militant groups was equally hard in mocking its decision to observe the week.

“It’s a political slogan. The role of the government of base camp (AJK) can be gauged simply from its response to the recent wave of massive demonstrations in held Kashmir on land transfer issue,” said Sadaqat Hussain, spokesman for United Jihad Council.

For over 10 days, the people of Kashmir launched protest demonstrations, braving teargas shells, baton charging by the Indian troops forcing the state government to reverse the land transfer decision but ironically the AJK rulers did not issue a two-line statement to express solidarity with them, he told Dawn.

He said the AJK government was not only unable to support the struggling people inside the held Valley it had also failed to take care of the refugees who had left their homes and hearths to project the movement.