Pakistan’s Kohala Power Project with China is to loot POK

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Local people in the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (POK) have been protesting against the Kohala Hydroelectric Power Project.
Local people in the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (POK) have been protesting against the Kohala Hydroelectric Power Project.

The 4,000 square mile of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, which is under Pakistan’s control, has recently signed $2.4 billion deal with China and the Pakistani government for electricity generation. This project is called the Kohala Power Project. In Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (POK), there’s a government called the Azad Kashmir Government. Although puppet governments of the occupiers cannot be called a representative government of the people nor can they be recognized. But if any kind of project is based on 4,000 square miles, then the right to control it should be with the Azad Kashmir Government. That is, the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

On this basis, if any country enters into an agreement with the state of Jammu and Kashmir then it should be with the so-called Azad Kashmir Government and not with the government of occupying Pakistan.

What a shame that the Pakistani state, its rulers and its people call it “Azad Kashmir” and fool the world that Pakistan-administered Kashmir is free, the people here have the right to rule, while the reality is just the opposite. Part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, popularly known as “Azad Kashmir”, is not independent but is completely occupied.

The role of the AJK government in all other mega projects, including the $2.4 billion Kohala Power Project agreement between China and Pakistan, is merely to facilitate the looting of state resources by the ruling classes of Occupying Pakistan. Generations have been playing the role of facilitators and flatterers.

The people have the right and control over the resources of the state. All such mega projects are the property of the people, but the tragedy is that the occupation of the ruling class extends. Lost rulers arrange the luxuries of their descendants by strengthening their ambitions. In return for this flattery and facilitation, the upper classes of the occupying state give them rule over the people. And this class is, the GHQ (General Headquarters).

Before implementing these projects, the lands, poverty, health etc. of the people are not taken into consideration. The already devastated people will suffer further humiliation and disgrace. In our slave society, the occupier has begun to give birth to new forms of looting.

POK’s state apparatus, which has the role to protect the property of people, is being sabotaged through such schemes. In this whole process, the leadership of all traditional political parties, including the government, is silent as their job is to flatter and facilitate.

The people of POK, and especially the youth, must resist the plunder of resources. They must demand public authority and control over state resources. To save their resources, they have to be organized, progressive and the nationalist organizations have to come up with a clear and solid policy such that all patriotic and people-friendly forces can be organized. Jammu and Kashmir People’s National Party (JKPNP) has started a campaign. The youth must debate about this campaign. They must raise questions, mobilize the people because if we do not do this today, tomorrow will not give us time, the water will pass through our head leaving only destruction and everything else will be washed away.

4 COMMENTS

  1. […] Some of these questions and debates are common. For instance: If the governments of Muzaffarabad and Gilgit are empowered to form an assembly that will present the issue of Jammu and Kashmir to the world, can we really take any practical steps to restore the unity of the state of Jammu and Kashmir? Are we ready for it? […]

  2. […] Vivek Sinha/ Dosten Baloch: Your struggle in POK is against Islamabad or the regime in Muzaffarabad?Habib-ur-Rehman: Our struggle is not against anyone, but we are fighting for our freedom. This war of independence is mainly against the occupiers. Our land and our people have been disgraced. We are fighting for a dignified life and against humiliation, so this struggle is a challenge to the occupation of Islamabad. The poor people of Muzaffarabad are dumb and loyal servants who only breathe for their existence. […]

  3. […] Islamabad has repeatedly been warned by the international community and IMF against taking “excessive loans” from Beijing and resultantly falling into debt trap, but to no avail. Au contraire, Islamabad has gone to the extent of not only taking enormous loans for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor [CPEC] and Belt and Road Initiative [BRI], but has even borrowed money at undisclosed rates of interest to repay its outstanding loans to Saudi Arabia- a novel [but economically debilitating] strategy that could be aptly phrased as ‘borrowing from Xi Jinping to Pay Mohammed bin Salman! However, latest developments related to financing of Main Line 1[ML1] railway project, which is the largest CPEC project, indicates that Beijing’s unbounded munificence towards its “all weather friend” Islamabad seems to be wearing out. […]

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