Let us stop pretending that Azad Kashmir is an ordinary political playground. It is not. This is a territory of barely 13,297 square kilometres, divided into three divisions and 10 districts and a Line of Control stretching approximately 528 kilometres. In such a place, one burning road is never just one burning road. One day of disorder travels across borders before sunset.

The people of Azad Kashmir have problems. Nobody should deny that. More than 82 per cent of the population is rural. Unemployment is officially put at 9.6 per cent. These figures explain why flour, electricity, jobs and local services become emotional questions. But pain is one thing; the business of pain is another.

A real public movement asks for relief. A fake revolutionary movement looks for fire. A real movement wants cheaper electricity, affordable flour, better hospitals, better schools and dignity for the common man. A fake movement takes the same issues and turns them into hatred, confrontation and anti-state theatre. This is the difference Azad Kashmir’s people now have to recognise.

The federal and AJK governments have not been sitting idle. In May 2024, after protests over wheat and electricity prices, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif approved a Rs23 billion package for Azad Kashmir. The price of a 40kg bag of wheat flour was brought down from Rs3,100 to Rs2,000. Electricity was fixed at Rs3 per........

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