MUZAFFARABAD: Former Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) prime minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas on Saturday censured the coalition government for trying to “stifle dissent” through a controversial law and called for its withdrawal.

“The day when the entire Kashmiri nation was up in arms over the endorsement of Narendra Modi-led government’s illegitimate and unilateral action of August 5, 2019, by India’s Supreme Court, the hybrid regime in Muzaffarabad introduced a highly controversial bill in the Legislative Assembly to accomplish its agenda of suppressing the dissenting voices both from the political activists and media,” said Mr Ilyas, in reference to the AJK Defamation Act, 2021 which was tabled by the government on Wednesday amid protest by the journalists community.

Talking to a group of journalists, the former AJK PM said ever since the present government took over, “not a single day had gone by when people had not suffered one or the other adversity at its hands”.

“Ask anyone in the liberated territory about their performance, and you will hear a torrent of complaints… And since they [government] themselves know the public sentiment and are anticipating an acceleration of anger at their deficiencies and infirmities, they have resorted to the promulgation of a black law to curb opposition and objection.”

Ilyas says move shifted attention away from the ‘controversial’ decision of India’s top court

According to him, the “impolitic move” by the “power-hungry coalition government” had diverted the attention of common people and media from the basic burning issue — the unlawful verdict of India’s top court.

“Freedom of speech and expression is of the utmost importance in a truly democratic society. Any attempt to suppress this freedom under the cover of the so-called defamation is tantamount to serving the interests of the enemy,” he maintained.

He claimed that when he headed the AJK government, he had never taken offence to criticism.

“In fact, I would tell people that they are free to critically evaluate or, if they like, appreciate the working of our government to help us bring improvement. We accepted criticism open-mindedly because I believe if you have faith in your ideas and goals, you should not be afraid of the candid opinions and observations of people,” said Mr Ilyas.

“Only egomaniacal and self-serving rulers, who know that they are unable to come up to the expectations of commoners, take offence to criticism.”

The former AJK premier regretted that the coalition government was also afraid of holding assembly sessions, despite the fact that during his time, the sitting premier, with the help of the then opposition and his coalition partners, would drag the sessions to months.

“Jammu and Kashmir is an issue of our life and death, and we owe our current status and stupendous privileges to the heroic struggle of our brothers and sisters across the divide,” he said and added that the government should not have wrapped up the session in less than four days and instead should have continued it and subsequently allowed all lawmakers to comprehensively express their views on the Indian government’s abominable acts vis-à-vis occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

“[T]hey should also have invited Islamabad-based foreign dignitaries and senior national and foreign media persons to witness and report the proceedings of the session.”

Paying tributes to the people of occupied Kashmir, he said there was no sign of diminution in their resolve for freedom from India.

“Whatever and however brute and illegitimate actions India may take, they will fail to subdue the valiant Kashmiris and eventually, India will have to quit the occupied territory,” he said.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2023