MUZAFFARABAD, April 12: The federal government has taken strong exception to a recent visit by AJK lawmakers and officials to several foreign countries, Dawn learnt on good authority here on Wednesday.

An eight-member delegation of lawmakers and officials was constituted by the AJK Legislative Assembly Speaker Sardar Siab Khalid to visit the United States, United Kingdom and Norway, apparently to highlight the Kashmir cause.

But the delegation members did not visit these countries jointly; some of them went to the US while others stayed back in Britain and visited some other European countries between March 10 and 20.

The joyride, as the federal government viewed it, according to sources, cost around Rs2.8 million to taxpayers. The money was drawn from the budget of the AJK assembly.

Headed by the speaker himself, the delegation comprised Education Minister Chaudhry Mohammad Aziz, Communications and Works Minister Chaudhry Tariq Farooq, Electricity Minister Sardar Mir Akbar Khan, Chairman Rules, Procedure and Privileges Committee Shah Ghulam Qadir and opposition MLA Raja Mujahid Khan.

The speaker is also reported to have included his son and his private secretary Sardar Shahid Khalid in the delegation although Sardar Azam Khan, the assembly’s administrative secretary in BPS-21, was already a part of the delegation.

“The federal government has expressed its displeasure, maintaining that there was no justification for this tour, particularly at a time when a massive earthquake had struck the state,” a source told Dawn on condition of anonymity.

The source said that the federal government had asked the assembly secretariat to put off the visit and save the huge amount earmarked for it for relief and reconstruction activity.

“But they undertook the visit without consulting the Foreign Office,” he said, pointing out that Islamabad had time and again made it clear that FO should be involved in foreign visits aimed at highlighting the Kashmir issue.

When asked about the engagements and achievements of the delegation, secretary Sardar Azam Khan said: “We held meetings with Kashmiri and Pakistani community in America and attended a seminar in London.”

However, he admitted that the delegation did not meet any US official or public representative.

“We did not meet any official or Congressman. But in London we attended a seminar where there were many members of the British Parliament,” he added.

It may be recalled that in June last year the assembly’s committee on finance had sanctioned Rs4 million for a tour to the US by an eight-member delegation, including seven lawmakers and one official.

One of the lawmakers, Raja Nisar Ahmed Khan, was finance minister at that time.

The purpose of the visit was initially described to attend a “negotiation skills training workshop” in Washington DC under the auspices of US-based NGO Institute of Multi-Track Diplomacy against a fee of $2000 per participant. Later, another four days were added to the programme to “meet the Kashmiri community” in the UK.

However, the extension in the schedule of the visit could not be availed of because the passports of some of its members were stuck in the US embassy while some members were asked by the AJK Ehtesab Bureau to provide “surety bonds” before leaving the country.

Finally, it went through nine months after initial allocation of money when the lawmakers decided to undertake the visit, the source said.