MUZAFFARABAD: The Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JKJAAC) emerged from two days of closed-door deliberations in Dadyal, Mirpur on March 30–31 to remind Islamabad and the Pakistan Administered Jammu & Kashmir (PaJK) government of the as yet unfulfilled commitments of the October 2025 accord.
It warned the government of implementing its commitments or face a long march on the Legislative Assembly.
The communiqué issued at the conclusion of the Core Committee meeting represents the movement's most explicit escalation threat since the October 2025 accord and dramatically reshapes the political landscape ahead of elections due before July 30.
The Ultimatum
The committee's central decision was to set a firm deadline of May 31, 2026, for the implementation of the October 4, 2025, Muzaffarabad Agreement, the JKJAAC's Charter of Demand, and a newly prepared charter on electoral reforms. Should that deadline pass without compliance, the committee declared it would no longer consider itself morally bound by the existing negotiation process.
It outlined its future actions. On 9 June 2026, a date the committee had previously flagged, it will launch a long march from Bhimber, Mirpur towards the PaJK Legislative Assembly in Muzaffarabad. During the march, an indefinite lockdown would be observed across the territory. Upon reaching Muzaffarabad, an indefinite sit-in would be held outside the Assembly building.
The committee called on local Joint Awami Action Committees to begin preparing immediately, and urged the public to stockpile at least one month's worth of rations and supplies.
Despite this confrontational posture, the committee stated it would continue engaging with the Monitoring and Implementation Committee established under the October Accord, at least until the May 31 deadline.
The committee characterised the authorities as having already violated the agreed settlement, leaving it with little faith in good-faith compliance but still willing to test the process.
Elections Without Reform: "Not Acceptable"
The meeting's most consequential political declaration concerned the elections themselves. Having consulted the Joint Awami Action Committees of all three divisions of Azad Jammu & Kashmir, the Core Committee concluded that proceeding with the 2026 elections in their current form would amount to a betrayal of the public.
Specifically, the committee stated that elections held without resolving the question of the 12 assembly seats reserved for Kashmiri refugees residents in Pakistan, without implementing the October accord, and without broader constitutional and electoral reforms, would not be acceptable to the people of Azad Jammu & Kashmir.
The committee was careful to frame this not as opposition to democracy itself, but as rejection of what it called the distortion of the public mandate through what it described as 12 disputed and controversial seats.
Its demands in this area were specific: abolition of those seats, the establishment of an independent Election Commission, redistribution of constituencies on a population-proportional basis, withdrawal of elite privileges as stipulated in the October Agreement, and broader consultation with all stakeholders, including the JKJAAC, before any electoral process proceeds.
The 12 refugee seats have been one of the movement's most contentious demands since its inception. Those seats, enshrined in PaJK's Interim Constitution, were designed to symbolise the territory's provisional status as a government representing the whole of undivided Jammu and Kashmir.
JKAAC members argue that these seats allow residents outside the territory to influence local politics without sharing its hardships. The October Accord had addressed the issue by forming a review committee, but the JKJAAC's communiqué suggests that process has not moved fast enough.
The October Accord: Promises and Grievances
The committee's frustration stems significantly from what it regards as the government's failure to honour the accord wrested through months of often violent protest. That agreement, signed in October 2025 between the JKJAAC, the PaJK government, and the Government of Pakistan, covered a sweeping range of commitments. It included compensation for those killed during demonstrations, infrastructure investment, including a Rs 10 billion electricity infrastructure grant, educational reform, healthcare improvements, and governance restructuring.
Two specific implementation disputes surfaced in the communiqué. On education, the committee noted that while the notification establishing two new educational boards for Muzaffarabad and Poonch Divisions had been issued, reports indicated the government was planning to fund them by transferring assets from the existing Mirpur Education Board.
The committee condemned this approach as an attempt to manufacture regional division among the people of PaJK, and warned of strong resistance to any such step.
On electricity, the committee warned that the Rs 10 billion grant must be disbursed strictly on merit, and that any attempt to use it for political patronage would trigger protests by local Awami Action Committees in the affected constituencies.
Both disputes point to the same underlying concern: that commitments made under duress are being implemented selectively, or manipulated for political advantage ahead of the election.
Shaukat Nawaz Mir Case and Press Freedom
The communiqué also addressed two matters it presented as examples of the unequal application of law. The first concerned core committee member Shaukat Nawaz Mir, against whom a case has reportedly been filed by the NCCIA. The committee strongly condemned the action, stating that Mir had not insulted any institution or individual, but had called for accountability over the events of 29 September, when, the committee states, direct fire was opened on unarmed and peaceful demonstrators, causing deaths and injuries.
The committee drew a pointed contrast: while a case had been registered against Mir for his statements, a self-described Hurriyat leader had publicly acknowledged meeting a senior officer of an Indian intelligence agency — a statement broadcast on a media channel — without apparent legal consequence. The JKAAC maintains that the law was being applied selectively to silence the movement's voices while ignoring others.
The committee also raised the case of Kashmiri journalist Sohrab Barkat, who it stated had been imprisoned for more than 100 days after conducting an interview with a political worker. It described his continued detention as raising serious questions about equal and fair treatment under the law.
From Agitation to Elections
The JKJAAC emerged from sustained popular protests over electricity tariffs, food prices, and governance failures that united traders, teachers, and ordinary citizens across Mirpur, Kotli, Poonch, and Muzaffarabad.
Its ability to force a trilateral agreement with both the PaJK and Pakistan federal governments in October 2025 marked it as an unusually effective civic force in a territory where grassroots pressure has historically been absorbed or deflected.
The Dadyal communiqué represents a significant hardening of its position. What had been a question of whether the JKJAAC should enter elections has now been answered with a counter-question directed at the authorities: will you implement the accord before demanding our participation in your process?
The June 9 long march deadline now sits just weeks before the expected election period, creating a collision course that could either force meaningful concessions from Islamabad and the PaJK government, or precipitate the most serious confrontation the territory has seen since the October 2025 unrest.
Chief Election Commissioner Justice Ghulam Mustafa Mughal confirmed on March 28 that elections would proceed on schedule, with a formal calendar expected in May, a timetable that now runs directly into the JKJAAC's mobilisation timeline.
Established Pakistan political parties in the region, including PPP, PML-N, and PTI, are already deepening their campaign presence.
But with the JKJAAC signalling that it views elections under current conditions as illegitimate, the most consequential political question ahead of polling day may not be which party wins, but whether the movement that reshaped PaJK politics can hold the government to account before voters are asked to cast their ballots.
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