Elections for 45 contesting seats in the PoK legislative assembly are being held in three phases and will conclude on August 10. There are 53 seats in PoK: 45 members are directly elected while eight seats are reserved for women, technocrats and clerics.

After the first phase on July 27, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) won nine of the 13 seats, authorities said amid allegations of massive rigging. The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) reportedly won the remaining seats.

New Delhi has described the ongoing elections as an attempt by Islamabad to camouflage its illegal occupation and hide its “grave” violation of human rights in the region.

Over the last two months, PoK has witnessed massive protests – the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), a civil society group, has been spearheading the protests – over 12 seats reserved for non-residents.

The JAAC has said Islamabad manipulates these seats to install a Prime Minister of its choosing. Protesters say these externally voted seats dilute local representation and give Islamabad disproportionate control over the PoK legislative assembly.

This, sources said, is one of the key reasons why the party ruling Islamabad usually wins the PoK elections – Pakistan People’s Party in 2011, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz in 2016 and Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in 2021.

Besides political disenfranchisement, the latest wave of demonstrations, sources said, also reflects growing anger over economic hardship and increasing restrictions on civil liberties.

According to sources closely monitoring the developments in the area, the ongoing unrest was triggered by “a total collapse of local governance, with authorities imposing an economic blockade that has caused critical shortages of subsidised wheat and essential medicines”.

The anger is also driven by “economic extraction”. “The dams in PoK, including Mangla, generate power far beyond the local demand of about 400 MW, yet residents face up to 15-20 hours of load shedding and pay tariffs several times the cost of generation,” the sources said.

In fact, the 38-point charter of protesters directly targets financial corruption and unchecked privileges of the ruling elite. The number of lives lost by indiscriminate firing by security forces on peaceful protesters is pegged at 150.

As the internet remains shut down in the region, there have been reports of widespread violence by security personnel in the wake of the elections. According to the JAAC, at least 14 its activists were killed and more than two dozen injured in clashes with security personnel during the first phase of elections.

In a television interview, Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif defended the government’s violent crackdown on demonstrators, stating that he placed the protesters in the same category as India, and called them “enemies like India”. He ruled out holding any dialogue with the protesters.

Commenting on the Pakistan government’s approach, Jaiswal said, “Its absolute disdain for the innocent people of PoK was laid bare when the Defence Minister branded the protesting civilians as enemies.”

“Adding to this, the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Political Affairs, openly admitted that the very ‘mujahideen’ that thePakistani establishment trained, armed and sent to bleed India have now turned their guns inward, weaponising themselves against the state,” he said.

Facing a violent regime, the people in PoK, Jaiswal said, have requested international organisations for an independent investigation into the unlawful killings. “We urge that the international community should scrutinise Pakistan’s actions and hold it accountable for its atrocities,” he said.