THERE is a reasonable argument that the democratic process must go on regardless of prevailing conditions; that powering through adversity is what makes systems stronger. At the same time, it must be said that the recent elections in Azad Kashmir really should have been planned and conducted better. The AJK Election Commission recently announced that the third and final phase of general elections in the territory, scheduled for Aug 10 across the entire Poonch division, will now be held only in Bagh and Haveli. Of the division’s 11 constituencies, only four will elect leaders to the AJK Assembly this Monday. Polling in the other seven was deferred after the home secretary reported law-and-order concerns following the July 27 clashes between police and the banned Joint Awami Action Committee in Rawalakot, which resulted in multiple casualties. No new date for the suspended polls has been announced, and it now seems that those areas may go without representation in the AJK legislature for the foreseeable future.

It was a controversial move to announce the election results piecemeal rather than after the exercise concluded in all constituencies. It now seems as though the authorities had anticipated that the election would not be completed. It is hoped that a new assembly will not be constituted and a government sworn in while seven constituencies sit unrepresented, with no date for their enfranchisement. As it is, rigging complaints have been coming not from a defeated outsider but from a partner in the ruling coalition at the centre. That alone makes it difficult not to view the exercise with considerable trepidation. The PML-N is claiming it will form the AJK government despite the polls not being complete, and it will find it difficult to shrug off the impression that this was the intention all along. But the process can still be salvaged. Given where things stand, the restive parts of AJK may stabilise quicker if they are governed by a House they have elected themselves. The election commission should give a new poll date for the deferred constituencies immediately, rather than wait until conditions are deemed “conducive”. It is also important that no government is sworn in at Muzaffarabad until every seat has been properly contested. It is essential that the political process march on, but it cannot leave any citizen behind.

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2026