Pakistan-administered Kashmir, formally known as Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), is preparing for legislative elections amid significant civil unrest centered on a constitutional dispute over representation. Since early June, nearly 40 people have died in clashes between protesters and security forces, while mobile and internet services remain suspended across most of the territory. The unrest, led by the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), originally focused on economic grievances including subsidized flour and cheaper electricity but has expanded to include demands for abolishing 12 assembly seats reserved for Kashmiri refugees.
Elections for the 45-seat Legislative Assembly have been rescheduled across three voting dates due to the tensions. Mirpur division voted as planned on July 27, Muzaffarabad division and the refugee seats are scheduled for August 2, while Poonch division, where tensions remain highest, will vote on August 10. JAAC’s leadership has urged supporters to boycott the elections and has been banned by the local government, with key figures arrested, underground, or organizing from protest camps.
The 12 contested seats trace their origins to electoral arrangements established in 1960 and formalized in AJK’s 1974 Interim Constitution. These seats represent roughly 439,000 registered voters from refugee communities scattered across Pakistani cities including Lahore and Rawalpindi, rather than within AJK’s geographical territory. A former AJK chief justice argued the seats have constitutional protection and cannot be removed without a formal constitutional amendment, a position affirmed by the AJK Supreme Court in June.
JAAC initially proposed alternatives, including retaining symbolic refugee representation or replacing the assembly seats with representation on the Kashmir Council, an Islamabad-chaired body overseeing federal matters. Both proposals were rejected at an All-Parties Conference on June 3. Government officials have stated that decisions on the seats should be made through the electoral process rather than under pressure from protests, while some observers argue that AJK’s elected leadership lacks genuine authority to negotiate settlements, with real power residing with Pakistan’s military establishment.
The dispute occurs within the context of a nearly 80-year-old United Nations framework that called for Kashmir’s final status to be determined through a plebiscite, a vote that has never been held on either side of the Line of Control. Constitutional lawyers and analysts debate whether the refugee seats serve Pakistan’s broader Kashmir policy objectives while also potentially constraining AJK’s autonomy and self-determination principles.
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