August 31, 2008	Sunday	Sha'aban 28, 1429

MUZAFFARABAD, Aug 30: A former prime minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday accused some unnamed federal government functionaries of taking share from the incumbent AJK government in return for their silence towards “unchecked corruption” in the liberated territory.

Barrister Sultan Mahmood recalled that when he was the prime minister (1996-2001), the federal authorities had imposed a “monitoring” system in the AJK on the grounds that those who provided the funds were empowered to question their utilisation.

“'Those who pay, they have a say’ was what they would tell me but now all are silent because they get their share in the money generated by the present rulers through corruption,” he alleged at a news conference.

When reminded that the monitoring of his government was conducted by the army whereas a civilian setup had now assumed office in Islamabad and questioned as to which of the two he was referring to in his allegation, the former premier did not give a clear reply.

Mr Mahmood, who heads Peoples Muslim League, and his counterpart in the main opposition Peoples Party accuse the Military Intelligence of installing Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan as the AJK premier with the help of region's acting election commissioner and other federal institutions. Lately another former prime minister and senior Muslim Conference leader, Sardar Sikandar Hayat, has also leveled similar accusations.

“Right now I don't have proof of who has received what amount of ill-gotten money from Sardar Attique but I will soon be able to share it with the media,” Mr Mahmood said.

But, he maintained, “circumstantial evidences which at times were stronger than documentary evidence” clearly suggested it was happening.

Mr Mahmood also cited some instances “to prove that how brazenly Sardar Attique led government was inflicting loss to the state kitty to raise personal fortunes.”

According to him, lease of 8345 kanals of land worth Rs 17.5 billion against a nominal yearly rent to Haji Aziz and Zulfiqar Abbasi in the name of a power project in Mirpur was the biggest ever “officially sponsored robbery” in the state.

He pointed out that not only him but Mr Hayat, too, was crying out that the (present) government was doling out prime land to its cronies but to no avail.

He recalled a statement of Mr Hayat that his real brother and revenue minister, Sardar Naeem Khan, had also got 50 kanals of forest land allotted to himself.

Mr Mahmood also listed three AJK government plots in Islamabad, claiming that he thwarted the move to sale them out at throwaway prices against kickbacks. He asserted that Sardar Attique's exit would not only be in the interest of the AJK people but also in the interest of the Kashmiris struggling across the LoC as well.

He told a questioner that he favoured dissolution of the assembly and fresh elections in AJK instead of an in-house change.

“We need to have free and fair elections to establish a truly elected government of the AJK that can pursue the cause of Kashmiris with a strong moral base,” he said. He also reiterated his suggestion that elections on both sides of the LoC should be held simultaneously under the auspices of the UN or the European Union to bring out true representatives of the Kashmiris.

Answering to a question, he admitted that the response in the AJK to the recent happenings in Occupied Kashmir

was not up to the mark but he put its blame on the AJK government.

“The present government has miserably failed to deliver and it must be replaced with the one strongly committed to the Kashmir cause,” he said.

He said he was in constant contact with the APHC leaders to work out a joint programme regarding a march towards the LoC from both sides.