MUZAFFARABAD: The Central Bar Association Muzaffarabad has demanded the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) government to constitute a one-member commission comprising a High Court judge to scrutinise the state subject’ certificates issued over the past 10 years.

State subject certificate is the de-facto citizenship certificate of the people residing in or belonging to the state of Jammu and Kashmir, currently divided between India and Pakistan.

The term ‘state subject’ was coined and defined by the princely state’s Dogra ruler through a notification issued on April 20, 1927, enumerating three categories of state subjects, known as class I, II and III.

Only those individuals holding a certificate can own property, build a house, gain admission in professional colleges, apply for employment with the government, or vote for the Legislative Assembly polls.

There have, however, been serious complaints that tens of hundreds of non-Kashmiris, particularly those settled in Pakistan, have unlawfully obtained state subject certificates to vote for the assembly elections and grab government jobs and admissions against the quota of Kashmiris.

“These are serious allegations with solid basis which need careful examination at the highest level,” said Raza Ali Khan, president of the Central Bar Association, Muzaffarabad.

He recalled that prior to the last general elections to the AJK Assembly in 2011, it had transpired that some 150 names in the electoral rolls of a Kashmiri refugees’ constituency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were listed care of Governor House, Peshawar.

Perhaps they were sanitary workers of the governor house, registered as Kashmiri voters on the basis of fake state subject certificates, he alleged.

“This is the tip of the iceberg. Across Pakistan, there might be thousands of non-Kashmiris who have acquired state subjects with the help of the people having vested interest,” he said.

Mr Khan said the bar had constituted a three-member committee to do groundwork in this regard.

The committee, which included advocates Ishfaq Kazmi, Ahmed Nawaz Tanoli and Malik Naseer, had started gathering information from different sources on bogus state subjects, he said.

“The fake state subjects are robbing the bona fide Kashmiris of their rights and therefore every conscientious person should help committee unearth such cases,” he said.

“Anyone with any tangible piece of information in this regard should contact the committee in complete confidence and thus put his share in this jihad,” he added.

According to official sources, the state subject certificates to the eligible persons residing within the Azad Jammu and Kashmir territory are issued by the respective deputy commissioners (DCs). These DCs can also issue certificates to the refugees settled in Pakistan after being satisfied with their genuineness, the sources say.

However, in mid-90s, a post of deputy commissioner rehabilitation (DC-R) was created to facilitate the Pakistan based Kashmiri refugees.

The DC-R has its office in Mirpur, but he also attends to the refugees in different cities of Pakistan.

Interestingly, under the AJK’s Interim Constitution, issuance of state subject certificates is part of the AJK Council’s legislative list, and not that of the AJK government.

The DCs issue state subject certificates on behalf of the AJK Council.

Mr Khan pointed out that it was anomaly in the law that powers to annul bogus state subject certificates vested with the AJK Council and not with the same DCs who would issue the same.

The cancellation process, he said, was so tedious and cumbersome that hardly any bogus certificate would be rescinded.

“The state subject law was drafted to protect the rights of bona fide citizens of Jammu and Kashmir, but unfortunately its purpose is being defeated, following issuance of fake certificates, either intentionally or unintentionally,” he said.

Published in Dawn, October 15th , 2014