MUZAFFARABAD, Nov 26: A 12-member parliamentary delegation of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) left for a weeklong junket to the United Kingdom (UK) and United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Monday, ostensibly to highlight Kashmir issue and study UK’s parliamentary committee system.

Notification for the tour was issued clandestinely on Friday, a day before the Muharram holidays, with 13 legislators from treasury and opposition benches and an official, as members of the delegation destined for the two countries.

According to the notification, the delegation, led by Speaker Sardar Ghulam Sadiq Khan, included minister for college education Matloob Inqilabi, minister for school education Mian Abdul Waheed, minister for law and parliamentary affairs Syed Azhar Hussain Gilani, minister for forests Sardar Javed Ayub, minister for rehabilitation Abdul Majid Khan, minister for tourism Abdul Salam Butt, minister for prisons Raja Wajidur Rehman, minister for social welfare Farzana Ahmed and chairman Public Accounts Committee Abid Hussain Abid from the People’s Party, leader of the opposition Raja Farooq Haider and Chaudhry Tariq Farooq from Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Malik Mohammad Nawaz from the Muslim Conference (MC).

However, the initial notification was amended the same afternoon following “unwillingness” by all three opposition members as well as the minister for social welfare to join it.

Through the amended notification, minister for local government and rural development Chaudhry Mohammad Yasin and PML-N legislator Syed Shaukat Ali Shah were added to the delegation.

According to the notification, the purpose of the visit was to “highlight Kashmir issue and study the parliamentary committee system of UK, besides meetings with Pakistani and Kashmiri community in the UK and UAE.”

Legislative Assembly (LA) secretariat’s deputy secretary Amjad Khanzda told Dawn that the delegation would stay in Dubai for two nights before returning home on December 6.

“It’s a study tour. They will meet parliamentarians from the ruling Conservative and opposition Labour parties, as well as mayors of different towns,” he said.He said details of delegation’s engagements were with LA secretary Chaudhry Basharat Hussain who had also flown as the delegation secretary.

It may be recalled that the LA secretariat was under tremendous pressure from the treasury lawmakers for the constitution of a parliamentary delegation for some European states. Bowing to the pressure, the speaker had “provisionally” constituted a 14-member delegation for UK, Belgium and Germany but the visit could not take place before the end of the last fiscal year.

Interestingly, during the meeting of LA’s finance committee PML-N’s Chaudhry Tariq Farooq had objected to the tour without proper preparations and had instead suggested spending of those funds on training and capacity building of legislators at home.

When contacted on Monday, Mr Farooq said he stood by his stance which was why he had declined to join the delegation.

“The UK is frequented by majority of AJK legislators and there was no point to squander money on a tour in the name of highlighting Kashmir cause and studying the parliamentary system… For how long will we befool our people,” he maintained.

“On the one hand the government is being run on overdraft and development budget is also being shifted to meet recurring expenditures, on the other hand such extravagance is also going on unchecked,” he said.

However, when asked why the PML-N had allowed one of its members to join the delegation, Mr Farooq said he had strong reservations against it.

“The party should not have allowed Mr Shah to be part of the junket,” he said.

MC’s Malik Nawaz echoed Mr Farooq’s views saying there was no use of wasting taxpayers’ money without proper preparation.

“They told me just three days ago to get ready for the tour. I was taken aback by it and declined,” he told Dawn from Kotli.

“Without a proper briefing and preparation, it’s just a joyride and nothing else.”

People in AJK believe that notwithstanding the stated purposes of such tours, practically most of the delegations restrict themselves to holding meetings with and addressing gatherings of their own (Kashmiri) communities, besides sightseeing.

Interestingly, barring a few, majority of those delegations have hardly submitted any report to the LA secretariat regarding their performance.