Islamabad, Aug 3 (IANS) The killing of protesting civilians demonstrates the limits of the China-Pakistan development model in the Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK), a report has detailed.
The latest unrest in PoJK exposes the occupied territory’s uneasy relationship with Pakistan. Weeks of protests, arrests and restrictions have led to violent clashes between protesters and security forces, with casualties reported on both sides. The full scale of the violence in PoJK is not known fully as communication has been disrupted and different accounts have emerged from the occupied territory, according to a report in UK-based newspaper ‘Asian Lite’.
The protests have been led by Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JKJAAC), a coalition that has brought together transporters, traders and civil society groups, raising various demands like lower electricity tariffs, reduction in food prices, government privileges and political representation. Pakistan’s coercive response has pushed the complaints of the people of the PoJK into security domain. Pakistan has been taking coercive measures against protesters in PoJK, whose demands include political representation, distribution of local resources and economic rights.
“The region is also increasingly integrated into Islamabad’s infrastructure ambitions and, through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), into Beijing’s economic presence in the region. The current unrest therefore exposes a broader contradiction: infrastructure can increase the economic and strategic value of a territory without necessarily giving its residents a greater role in determining how that value is used,” the Asian Lite report mentioned.
China has been promoting CPEC as an economic partnership focused on connectivity, development and energy. The model depends on the Pakistani state to negotiate projects, provide security and create the political legitimacy under which Chinese firms operate. However, the unrest exposes the limitations of China’s state-to-state development model, according to the report.
Pakistan has been facing problems of authority and public order due to repeated mobilisation in PoJK. However, coercion does little to address people’s demands, that have led to protests in PoJK over the past several years.
“The latest unrest reflects a widening distance between the way PoJK is valued within larger strategic and economic plans and the way governance is contested by sections of its population. Pakistan’s reliance on coercion may suppress that tension temporarily, while Chinese investment can continue expanding the territory’s infrastructure. Neither, however, resolves the underlying question of how communities participate in deciding how resources are developed and how their benefits are distributed,” the report in Asian Lite stated.
–IANS
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