Pakistan’s self-determination sermons ring hollow against the backdrop of repression in its controlled Kashmir regions, according to a Thursday report. Far from empowering locals, Islamabad’s grip ensures decisions flow one way—from the capital to the peripheries.
The annual January 5 observance serves as a propaganda platform to challenge India’s sovereignty over Jammu and Kashmir. But Eurasia Review’s investigation reveals PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan as zones of limited agency, where local governance is a facade.
Pro-freedom voices are crushed, press freedoms curtailed, and legal frameworks designed to perpetuate central dominance. Economic stagnation compounds the misery, with scant progress in basic services.
India’s post-2019 Jammu and Kashmir overhaul tells a different story. Strategic investments have upgraded connectivity via world-class roads and rails, electrified remote areas, enhanced medical access, and expanded educational opportunities. Tourism’s revival has been a game-changer, infusing jobs and revenue into the economy.
Welfare reaches doorsteps via digital transfers, empowering the vulnerable. Reforms in inheritance laws uplift women and minorities, and local polls foster accountable leadership. Metrics from elections to tourist footfall affirm a community embracing stability.
Pakistan’s stance drips with irony: it invites UN probes into India but recoils from similar scrutiny at home. Human rights barbs target New Delhi exclusively, overlooking PoK’s choked political space. Militarism critiques ignore its terror patronage.
Firmly woven into India’s fabric, Jammu and Kashmir benefits from robust democracy and development focus. Its residents’ choices—high engagement in votes, business, and leisure—signal a future-oriented mindset, dismissing Pakistan’s violence-glorifying tales that fuel chaos over constructive change.