PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari proposed the creation of an independent Truth and Reconciliation Commission for AJK while addressing party leaders and election ticket holders in Muzaffarabad on July 15, calling the current situation “a national tragedy” that required more than a security response to resolve (Express Tribune; Geo News; ARY News).
Bilawal proposed the commission be constituted from all parties concerned — including the government, JAAC representatives and civil society — with a mandate to establish the relevant facts, examine all outstanding political, legal and administrative issues, and recommend a fair and durable way forward. He said the commission should be sufficiently independent and broad-based to carry credibility with AJK residents.
He warned that prolonged unrest would harm both Pakistan’s international standing and its core narrative on Kashmir. “The PPP will never tolerate anti-state narratives,” he said, but added that peaceful protesters must not be branded as terrorists. Bilawal said the armed forces were PPP’s “red line” — a formulation that simultaneously signalled support for the security apparatus and opposition to any framing of the protests as purely a law-and-order matter.
Observer status proposal
Beyond the commission, Bilawal proposed granting AJK observer status in key national institutions including the National Finance Commission, the Council of Common Interests, Parliament and the Senate. He said this would allow AJK’s concerns to be raised within formal federal forums before they escalated into street-level confrontations — addressing what he described as the structural exclusion of AJK residents from national decision-making that partly underlies the current unrest.
The proposal is notable for its scope: NFC and CCI inclusion would give AJK some voice in fiscal distribution decisions that directly affect the electricity tariff and subsidy questions at the heart of the JAAC demands.
Context
Bilawal was in Muzaffarabad in his capacity as PPP leader, meeting candidates ahead of the July 27 AJK Assembly elections. PPP is a significant electoral force in AJK; the visit combined electoral party work with a substantive political intervention on the crisis that has dominated the territory for over six weeks. No government response to the TRC proposal was issued by the time of publication.
