MUZAFFARABAD, March 16: The AJK People’s Party has decided to put up strong resistance to the Muslim Conference government for its alleged vindictive acts against the opposition.

This decision was taken by AJKPP parliamentarians, who held a meeting here on Thursday night with the leader of the opposition in the AJK Legislative Assembly, Barrister Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry, in the chair.

The meeting was attended by 12 out of the 17 legislators of the party. Those who did not attend the meeting were former Legislative Assembly speaker Chaudhry Abdul Majeed, Chaudhry Pervez Ashraf, Deevan Ghulam Mohiuddin, Raja Mujahid and Shahzada Kosar Gillani.

According to sources in the party, the former speaker has been at odds with Mr Mahmood since long and is manoeuvring to replace him as party president while Mr Ashraf is also stated to have got close to the government. But the absence of three other MLAs was attributed by the sources to their personal commitments. They had already informed the party chief of their inability to attend the meeting, the sources said.

AJK Council members Sardar Sawar Khan and Syed Mumtaz Naqvi and two of the PP’s main office-bearers, Chaudhry Latif Akbar and Khwaja Farooq Ahmed, also attended the meeting on special invitation.

The sources said the parliamentary party had unanimously decided to give a “tough time” to the government because it had resorted to vindictive acts against the opposition, such as ignoring them in allocation of developmental funds for their constituencies.

It was also decided that rallies, public meetings and demonstrations would be held across Azad Jammu and Kashmir to mobilize the masses for a “possible showdown” with the government.

Barrister Sultan Mahmood informed the meeting that he would visit the areas along the Line of Control to express solidarity with the residents braving Indian aggression with gallantry.

“Inefficiency and inability of Sardar Sikandar-led government” regarding proper projection of the Kashmiris’ cause in the international community had been criticized by the parliamentary party, he said, adding that the “failure of government on both domestic and foreign fronts” could help the People’s Party make a clean sweep in the forthcoming local bodies’ polls.

The parliamentary party did not discuss the proposal to launch a civil disobedience movement although Mr Mahmood had told a big gathering in Mirpur on March 11 that the meeting could consider launching either a civil disobedience movement or a parallel government in the AJK.

When contacted on Friday, Mr Mahmood said they would continue offering strong political resistance to the government because “we are at the end of our tether.”

He said he had also conveyed to the opposition reservations about the steps being taken by the government to the “concerned quarters” and was hopeful that they would take an appropriate action.

“We cannot allow the government to usurp the rights of the people just because of their political affiliations. We will play our political role in accordance with the recognized democratic principles.”