MUZAFFARABAD, Aug 6: Azad Jammu and Kashmir cabinet on Tuesday gave approval to adoption of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, prevalent in Pakistan with a view to awarding exemplary punishment to terrorists.

However, Law Minister Raja Nisar Ahmed Khan told newsmen after the meeting that the cabinet had decided that initially no special courts would be established under the law and the powers of such courts would be given to the district and sessions judges.

He said although Azad Kashmir was generally safe from terrorist incidents, the government felt the need to enforce a law to meet any eventuality.

He said the cabinet had approved allocation of Rs20.05 million to be equally distributed as compensation among the families of 401 AJK residents martyred in occupied Kashmir since 1995.

The cabinet accepted the application of a Mirpur-based cassette factory, owned by a former general, whereby he had sought tax exemption for another 10 years. The factory, established in 1987, was given exemption for being a “sick unit”, the minister claimed.

Asked what steps the government was taking to prevent the alleged shifting of industrial units from Azad Kashmir after enjoying tax holiday for five years as pointed out by the AJK Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the minister could not give a satisfactory reply.

“Industries need facilities and incentives. Here they have some problems, such as Water and Power Development Authority’s unjustified tariff. Nevertheless we will remove the industrialists’ grievances,” he said.

The exemption of tax to the cassette factory for another 10 years, he said, was one such step to encourage the industrialists to invest and stay in AJK.

He said the government had decided to appoint 21 civil medical officers and eight specialist doctors in areas close to the Line of Control on two-year contract against monthly salaries of Rs 12,000 and Rs15,000 respectively, to cope with the shortage of doctors in the locations.

AJK nationals would be preferred for the posts, but if needed doctors from Pakistan would be appointed, he told a questioner.

The law minister said a committee, headed by him and including two other ministers and two secretaries, had been constituted by the cabinet to look into the cases of the ad hoc doctors, serving since long.

The committee will suggest how these doctors could be appointed permanently through the public service commission, he said.

The cabinet, the minister said, also approved allotment of four kanals for the AJKCCI in Mirpur, which would build its offices on it.

Approval to naming a road in Shaukat Lines locality after Brig Najam Shaheed was also given by the cabinet. The brigadier had died in a helicopter crash in Neelum valley six years ago.

#RESOLUTIONS:# The cabinet, in a resolution, condemned the unprovoked and indiscriminate shelling on the civilian populations of Azad Kashmir along the LoC and said such cowardly acts could not suppress the Kashmiris’ quest for freedom.