Author: Arun Sharma
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: March 24, 2002
URL: http://www.expressindia.com/kashmir/kashmirlive/kl20020324.html
Sounds incredible, but a family
from Pakistan not only managed to settle in the sensitive border
state, one of its members also procured a job in the state police. Ironically,
this happened despite the fact that the J-K High Court had rejected a petition
by the family for settlement in Jammu and Kashmir.
On the other hand, thousands of
families who migrated from West Pakistan to various parts of Jammu region
during the 1947 partition, are still not treated as permanent residents
of the state. As a result, they can exercise their franchise only during
the parliamentary elections and not in the Assembly polls. Neither can
they own any property in the state, nor can their children apply for a
job with the state government.
While sources said the appointment
of a Pakistani national as a cop may be just a tip of the iceberg, the
Minister of State for Home Khalid Najeeb Suharwardy said the police cannot
be held responsible if such a thing has happened. The revenue officials
may have issued him the state subject (permanent resident certificate),
enabling him to procure a job in the police, he said, adding that he was
not aware of details of the case.
Sources said Faqar Din along with
his wife, Fatma and children came to India on valid Pakistani passports
(Nos. AK-396860, AK-396885, AK-396870, AK-396886 and AK-396872) in 1983.
The purpose of their visit was to meet some relatives at Salwa in Mendhar
tehsil of the border Poonch district. Ifitkar was a minor at that time.
However, as their visa was due to
expire on August 2, 1983, Faqar Din and his family got it extended from
the Union Home Ministry by another month.
But, instead of returning to Pakistan
before the expiry of their extended visa period, they filed a writ petition
in the High Court on October 7, 1983, seeking directions to the Centre
and the state governments to allow them settle in the state.
In their petition, Faqar Din and
his family members submitted that they were residents of village Salwa
and had migrated to Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) during the 1965 Indo-Pak
war to save their lives. However, they always wanted to return to India
as all their relatives were living on this side of the border, the family
pointed out, adding that they also owned a house and some agricultural
land in the village.
After six years, Justice R P Sethi
of the High Court dismissed the petition on August 17, 1990, saying that
the petitioners being Pakistni
nationals had no right to approach
this court for their settlement in the state, especially when the law relating
to re-settlement of such persons had already been kept in abeyance. The
petitioners, who have declared to be Pakistani nationals, cannot claim
to be citizens of India after the coming into force of the Indian Citizenship
Act, 1955, Justice Sethi added.
However, the family continued staying
at Salwa even thereafter and no one at the Centre or in the state bothered
to extern them to PoK as per directions of the court. And, as the matter
cooled down with the passage of time, all the family members got their
names included into the electoral rolls in 1995 and 1996.
Pointing out that Faqar Din had
died by then, they said names of some of the family members were added
in the electoral rolls in 1995 and the remaining others in 1996. Significantly,
this was done through two separate summery additions in the electoral rolls
of 1989.
Officials in the Election Department,
however, expressed surprise over the manner the names of Faqar Din's widow
and children were included into the electoral rolls. This could not have
been done in the voter lists of 1989 as summery revision of electoral rolls
was done in the state during 1988, they added.
Next year, one of the Faqar Din's
sons, Ifitkar Ali got appointed as a constable in the police vide order
No. SSP 1567/97 dated December 15, 1997.
And as the time passed, the family
got the state subjects (permanent resident certificates) issued in their
favour vide order Nos. SDM/442 dated August 25, 1998 and SDM/4 dated April.