As J&K prospers, PoK seeks US help to improve economy

At a time when Jammu and Kashmir is attracting lots of foreign investments post Article 370 abrogation, the government in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) is seeking United States' help to improve the region’s worsening economy, Pakistani media reported.

According to a report in Dawn newspaper published on October 5, PoK’s Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas, during his recent meeting with US Ambassador in Pakistan, Donald Blome appealed for an increase in the USAID programme and assistance for the victims of recent floods, the damages caused by the climate change and protection of the archaeological sites in PoK.

However, there was no word on Blome’s response to the PoK premier’s proposals, it said. Ilyas assured the US Ambassador that his government would fully facilitate American companies in tax and other matters once they entered into agreements with it for investment in different sectors.

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Pakistan has always been reliant on foreign patronage, be it US, China, or several Gulf nations and even after 75 years of independence, the country’s elite are continuing to tread on the same path.

On the contrary, there has been a flow of huge foreign investment into J&K after the erstwhile state’s special status under Article 370 was revoked in August 2019. The administration is expecting a possible investment of Rs 75,000 crore by the end of calendar year 2022, which officials said is five times the investment which happened in the region in the last 75 years.

Some of the high profile companies who are investing in J&K include The Lulu Group, Apollo, EMAAR, and Jindal. The UT has inked five more MoUs with Al Maya Group, MATU Investments LLC, GL Employment Brokerage LLC, Century Financial, and Noon E-commerce, respectively. Magna Waves Pvt. Ltd and Emaar Group, and Lulu International have also signed a single Letter of Intent.

According to the Dawn report, the PoK premier as usual drew the attention of the ambassador towards the so-called worsening situation in Kashmir and appealed them to to play the “much-needed role to resolve the lingering dispute, which had been the main cause of rights violations in the occupied territory.”

“For the last 75 years, the Pakistani elite have been hiding their failures by taking up the so-called Kashmir issue at international forums. Common man in PoK and Pakistan is suffering immensely and the rulers are hiding behind the garb of so-called rights violations in Kashmir,” Javeed Trali, a political analyst said.