MUZAFFARABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) submitted on Friday a resolution to the secretariat of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly, which accused Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider of violating his oath of office and hurting the cause of Kashmiris by making a “highly controversial statement” on the future course of the Kashmiris.

“During his press conference on July 30 Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider made a statement that severely damaged Kashmir cause and clearly diverged from the 70-year-long stance of Kashmir’s accession to Pakistan, in sheer violation of the Constitution and his oath of office,” read the resolution that was signed by PTI lawmakers Abdul Majid Khan and Deevan Ghulam Mohyuddin.

“According to the First Schedule, Section 13(4), of the AJK Interim Constitution Act, 1974, the prime minister has to swear allegiance to the ideology of (Kashmir’s) accession to Pakistan but Mr Haider failed to adhere to it,” the PTI legislators said in their resolution.

Mr Haider also raised objections to the judgement of the Supreme Court of Pakistan in the Panama Papers case, which amounted to committing contempt of the court, they said.

The lawmakers said the AJK Supreme Court had held in its several decisions that judgments of the Supreme Court of Pakistan had a binding effect in AJK and on that account “the AJK premier had [also] acted against the judgements of the apex court of Azad Kashmir.

Published in Dawn, August 5th, 2017