MUZAFFARABAD: Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Prime Minister Chaudhry Anwarul Haq on Sunday announced a Rs1 billion ‘Poonch Package’, pledging to address the area’s longstanding deprivations and ensure equitable progress.

Speaking at the ‘Maarka-e-Haq – Bunyan al-Marsous’ rally at Sabir Shaheed Stadium in Rawalakot, the premier said his government would continue to prioritise public welfare, urging unity to counter adversarial designs.

“Our bonds of love and loyalty with Pakistan are unconditional and everlasting,” he asserted.

The rally was jointly organised by Mr Haq’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf ‘Forward Bloc’ and its coalition partners — the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) — as well as the Jammu Kashmir People’s Party (JKPP), Muslim Conference (MC) and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Jammu Kashmir (JUI-JK).

Many participants of the rally were drawn from across AJK and some parts of Pakistan. Organisers claimed that those coming from Pakistan were Kashmiri refugees settled there.

In his speech, Prime Minister Haq congratulated Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir and Pakistan’s political and military leadership on signing a defence pact with Saudi Arabia, calling it a historic step that had “unnerved India”.

He maintained that the accord would enhance Pakistan’s influence at global forums and further strengthen the Kashmir cause.

Referring to a recent Indian attempt to escalate tensions in Leepa valley, he said the

move was decisively repulsed by Pakistan’s brave armed forces.

Warning New Delhi, he declared: “If you dare again, we will strike you inside your own territory.”

Highlighting the plight of Palestinians, Mr Haq observed that unlike them, Kashmiris had the backing of a strong army like Pakistan’s, which ensured their struggle could not be suppressed.

Earlier, the rally was addressed by former prime ministers Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan, Raja Farooq Haider, Sardar Tanveer Ilyas and Sardar Mohammad Yaqoob Khan, PPP AJK president Chaudhry Yasin, PML-N president Shah Ghulam Qadir, JKPP president Sardar Hassan Ibrahim, JUI-JK chief Maulana Imtiaz Siddiqui, and cabinet members Raja Faisal Mumtaz Rathore, Sardar Javed Ayoub, Javed Iqbal Budhanvi, Chaudhry Qasim Majeed and Nabila Ayub, alongside former ministers, political workers and civil society representatives.

Published in Dawn, September 22nd, 2025