• PHJK organises ceremony in Muzaffarabad
• AJK PM’s spokesman says Kashmiris would choose Pakistan if given the opportunity

MUZAFFARABAD: Accession to Pakistan Resolution Day was observed across Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Saturday, with ceremonies held to reaffirm support for a pre-partition resolution by Kashmiri Muslims calling for the accession of the erstwhile princely state to the then yet-to-emerge Dominion of Pakistan.

In Muzaffarabad, Pasban-i-Hurriyat Jammu Kashmir (PHJK), an organisation of post-1989 migrants from occupied Kashmir, organised a ceremony on the premises of the press club, where a panaflex banner carrying the text of the July 19, 1947, resolution was affixed to a wall.

Participants, including political and social activists, elders and youth, signed the banner to reaffirm their commitment to the ideology of Jammu and Kashmir’s accession to Pakistan.

The participants also raised slogans in support of Pakistan, the Kashmiri people’s right to self-determination and their freedom struggle.

Addressing the gathering, PHJK Chairman Uzair Ahmed Ghazali said the people of Jammu and Kashmir regarded the July 19, 1947, resolution adopted by the Working Committee of the Muslim Conference, then the sole representative political organisation of the majority Muslim population, along with the United Nations Security Council resolution of Jan 5, 1949, as important milestones in the political history of the disputed region.

He expressed gratitude to Pakistan for consistently supporting the Kashmiri people’s demand for the right to self-determination, and said the sacrifices of hundreds of thousands of Kashmiris for freedom from India would not go in vain.

AJK Prime Minister’s spokesman Shaukat Javed Mir said whenever given the opportunity to exercise their right to self-determination through a UN-sponsored plebiscite, Kashmiri people would vote for accession to Pakistan.

Other speakers, including PHJK Vice Chairman Usman Ali Hashim, refugee leaders Chaudhry Ferozuddin, Bilal Ahmed Faruqi, Sarandaz Mir, Irfan Ahmed Butt, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, Ishaq Shaheen and Azmat Hayat, said the relationship between Kashmiris and Pakistan was rooted in shared religious, historical and cultural values.

Reiterating their commitment to the accession of Kashmir to Pakistan, they stressed that the Kashmiri people should be allowed to determine their future through a free and impartial plebiscite under the UN resolutions. They urged the international community to play its role in resolving the longstanding dispute.

Meanwhile, speaking at a public gathering in his constituency in Jhelum Valley district, former AJK prime minister and PML-N leader Raja Farooq Haider said the July 19, 1947, resolution had linked the future of the people of Jammu and Kashmir with Pakistan.

He alleged that certain elements were attempting to create a divide between the people of Pakistan and AJK and vowed that such efforts would not succeed.

Without naming anyone, he said those pursuing an anti-state agenda would fail in weakening the relationship between Pakistan and Kashmir.

Similar functions were held at several other places to commemorate the historic resolution and reaffirm support for Jammu and Kashmir’s accession to Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2026