MIRPUR ( AJK), May 31 (APP) : Azad Jammu and Kashmir President Barrister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhry Tuesday said the people of Mirpur have rendered matchless sacrifices for the construction of Mangla Dam that had revolutionized Pakistan’s economic, agricultural and energy sector.
Addressing a news conference at his camp office here, Barrister Sultan said funds worth Rs1.22 billion have been earmarked for the rehabilitation of the affectees. The sacrifices rendered by the local people during the raising of Mangla Dam could not be ignored, he added.
Additional Chief Secretary (Development ) Dr Sajid Chauhan, ACS (General) Sayed Asif Ali Shah, Commissioner Mirpur Division Ch. Muhammad Raqeeb, Senior Member Board of Revenue Dr. Liaqat Hussain, Senior DMG group officer. Mukhtar Hussain and other senior officers of AJK Government were also present on this occasion.
“It has been decided to allot 10 marlas instead of five marlas of land for the sub-families of 8080 persons”, he said adding that in the first phase six and a half thousand kanals of land will be identified by the next week.
He said that PC-1 for the construction of Public Park at New City had also been prepared which will be completed in 15 months.
Regarding the holding of much-delayed local body elections, the president said the LB polls would be held as per the directions of the honourable court. “Our vision is to transfer power to the grassroots level”, he said.
The president said, “Kashmiriyat would be taught in all the universities of Azad Kashmir, including MUST, so that the new generation can be made aware of the Kashmir cause.”
MUST University will be made an international educational institution, he added.
He said that the government would raise the issue of unjust sentencing of JKLF chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik at world level to expose India’s racist regime that has been shamelessly using its judiciary to silence legitimate political voices in Kashmir.
Malik’s life imprisonment, he said, was a slap on India’s so-called secular face and its judicial system.
Barrister Sultan said the Indian government cannot suppress Kashmiris’ legitimate struggle by resorting to such mean tactics. Urging the international community to take effective notice of the Indian hegemonic designs in the region, the president said the BJP was hatching a conspiracy to change Kashmir’s demography.
“In this regard the occupation authorities have issued fake domiciles to 4.2 million people in Kashmir”, he said, adding that more than 4,000 Indian investors have been issued land in different areas of the state.
Settlement of non-Kashmiris (Indian nationals) forcibly in the state, he said, was a deep-rooted conspiracy to change Muslim majority state into a minority and install Hindu chief minister in the region.
