ISLAMABAD: PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, whose party holds the majority in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly, said on Sunday he would meet Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif over the current AJK situation, asserting that issues should be resolved through talks.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari expressed these views while presiding over PPP’s AJK parliamentary party meeting, held to review political situation in the region ahead of the June 27 elections. According to a PPP statement, the party’s political affairs in-charge Faryal Talpur was also present at the Islamabad huddle.

While expressing concern over the situation in AJK, the PPP chairman said, “We have always prioritised the issues of Kashmiris.” He said he would meet Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and a solution to the issues would be found through talks and the assembly.

Minister Tariq Fazl says dialogue is way forward

The meeting was held a day after AJK authorities launched a crackdown on the newly proscribed Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), arresting scores of its leaders and activists from different areas.

‘Most demands fulfilled’

Earlier on Sunday, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry claimed that most of JAAC’s demands agreed between the group and the government in October last year had already been fulfilled.

“Thirty-five out of 38 demands have been implemented,” he said while addressing a press conference in Islamabad. About the remaining demands, he said the courts had issued an order regarding some while others were simply “not feasible”.

The minister said solution to the issues could not be “violent demonstrations” as dialogue was the way forward. He questioned if the planned protests were an attempt at “portraying Pakistan and AJK as separate entities; is it an attempt to weaken Pakistan’s relation with AJK; is it an attempt to create hatred between refugees from India-occupied Kashmir and the people of AJK; and lastly, is this an attempt to weaken the Kashmir cause?”

He claimed the government had not disregarded the JAAC’s demands. But “when we talk to them about resolving issues through dialogue, they respond with violent demonstrations; these are two contradictory approa­ches”, he added.

Mr Chaudhry said he along with Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan Amir Muqam had been holding monthly meetings with JAAC to review progress on the agreement, yet the latter put out a fresh call for protests.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2026