‘The residents of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) are ready to join the Indian Union’, said PoK activist Amjad Ayub Mirza as anger among the public continues to grow against the Shehbaz Sharif government. With a scarce foreign exchange reserve and heavy debt, the Pakistan government has raised taxes on basic necessities which has provoked the Pakistanis to carry out massive anti-government protests in both PoK and the illegally held Gilgit-Baltistan.
“People are out on streets because there is no food, there is no flour, and in PoJK, in one day, they have increased the price of wheat by Rs 1,200. People are fed-up. The government depots for flour are locked. There is no flour there. People in almost every city of PoK are protesting, even students, lawyers, civil society and women are protesting”, Mirza said.
The sharif government has levied heavy taxes on over 135 items of daily use including wheat flour. With just under $5 billion in forex reserve, Pakistan has $274 billion of total public debt which has brought it on the brink of defaulting.
Witnessing the furious upsurge of protests in Pakistan, Mirza said that the youth is now raising slogans demanding ‘toote rishte jodd do‘ (rebuild broken relations) meaning they are willing to join Ladakh and J&K instead of residing in the cash-strapped nation. The anger in Gilgit-Baltistan has also been fuelled by the ‘Khalsa Sarkar Tax’, which transfers any barren land in the region automatically to the government of Gilgit-Baltistan for setting up security forces camp.
The ongoing financial crisis has also given the locals an opportunity to voice their anger against the discrimination they have faced for seven decades. Blaming the government for being negligent toward PoK, the residents have warned they will not allow the administration to function if the issues are not resolved.
Shehbaz Sharif’s plan to rescue Pakistan’s economy
The Pakistani PM is now seeking financial aid from several nations to rescue his country from the economic crisis. A total of $9 billion has been pledged by several nations such as France, China, Japan, the USA, and organisations like the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, the European Union and Islamic Developmemt Bank.
Sharif, however, recently admitted that seeking loans from friendly countries is now turning embarrassing for him as it is not a permanent solution considering the mountain of debt laden over the country.