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Azad Kashmir

This article is about the Pakistani administrative territory. For other uses, see Kashmir (disambiguation).

Azad Jammu and Kashmir
Āzād Jammū̃ o Kaśmīr
Region administered by Pakistan as a self-administrative territory
top: Arang Kel
middle: Shounter Valley
bottom left: Azad Kashmir in Pakistan
bottom right: Closer look of the disputed Kashmir region in India and Pakistan[1]
Flag
Flag of Azad Jammu and Kashmir
Flag
Official seal of Azad Jammu and Kashmir
State seal
Map
Interactive map of Azad Kashmir
Coordinates: 33°50′36″N 73°51′05″E / 33.84333°N 73.85139°E / 33.84333; 73.85139
Administered byPakistan
Established24 October 1947
Current constitution31 August 1974
CapitalMuzaffarabad
Largest cityMuzaffarabad
Government
 • TypeSelf-governing state under Pakistani administration[2][3]
 • BodyGovernment of Azad Kashmir
 • PresidentSultan Mehmood Chaudhry
 • Prime MinisterChaudhry Anwar-ul-Haq
 • Chief SecretaryDawood Muhammad Barech (BPS-21 PAS)
 • LegislatureAzad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly
 • Supreme CourtSupreme Court of Azad Jammu and Kashmir
Area
 • Total13,297 km2 (5,134 sq mi)
Population
 (2017)
 • Total4,045,366
 • Density300/km2 (790/sq mi)
DemonymAzad Kashmiri
Time zoneUTC+05:00 (PKT)
ISO 3166 codePK-AJK
Languages
  • Official:
    Pahari (Poonchi), Pahari-Pothwari, Hindko, Punjabi
  • Minority:
    Gojri, Kashmiri, others
Literacy rate (2017)74%[4]
HDI (2019)0.612 Increase[5]
Medium
Divisions3
Districts10
Tehsils33
Union Councils182
Websitewww.ajk.gov.pk
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Azad Jammu and Kashmir (Urdu: آزاد جموں و کشمیر, romanized: , lit. 'Independent Jammu and Kashmir'; abbr. AJK),[6] officially the State of Azad Jammu and Kashmir[a] and colloquially referred to as simply Azad Kashmir (/ˌɑːzæd kæʃˈmɪər/ AH-zad kash-MEER),[7] is a region administered by Pakistan as a nominally self-governing entity[8] and constituting the western portion of the larger Kashmir region, which has been the subject of a dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947.[1] Azad Kashmir also shares borders with the Pakistani provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the south and west, respectively. On its eastern side, Azad Kashmir is separated from the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir (part of Indian-administered Kashmir) by the Line of Control (LoC), which serves as the de facto border between the Indian and Pakistani-controlled parts of Kashmir. Geographically, it covers a total area of 13,297 km2 (5,134 sq mi) and has a total population of 4,045,366 per the 2017 national census.

The territory has a parliamentary form of government modelled after the British Westminster system, with the city of Muzaffarabad serving as its capital. The President of AJK is the constitutional head of state, while the Prime Minister, supported by a Council of Ministers, is the chief executive. The unicameral Azad Kashmir Legislative Assembly elects both the Prime Minister and President. The territory has its own Supreme Court and a High Court, while the Government of Pakistan's Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan serves as a link between itself and Azad Jammu and Kashmir's government, although the autonomous territory is not represented in the Parliament of Pakistan.

Northern Azad Kashmir lies in a region that experiences strong vibrations of the earth as a result of the Indian Plate underthrusting the Eurasian Plate.[9] A major earthquake in 2005 killed at least 100,000 people and left another three million people displaced, causing widespread devastation to the region's infrastructure and economy. Since then, with help from the Government of Pakistan and foreign aid, reconstruction of infrastructure is underway. Azad Kashmir's economy largely depends on agriculture, services, tourism, and remittances sent by members of the British Mirpuri community. Nearly 87% of Azad Kashmiri households own farm property,[10] and the region has the highest rate of school enrollment in Pakistan and a literacy rate of approximately 74%.[11][4]

  1. ^ a b The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kashmir dispute is supported by the tertiary sources (a) through (e), reflecting due weight in the coverage. Although "controlled" and "held" are also applied neutrally to the names of the disputants or to the regions administered by them, as evidenced in sources (h) through (i) below, "held" is also considered politicized usage, as is the term "occupied" (see (j) below).
    1. Kashmir, region Indian subcontinent, Encyclopaedia Britannica, archived from the original on August 13, 2019, retrieved August 15, 2019, Kashmir, region of the northwestern Indian subcontinent ... has been the subject of dispute between India and Pakistan since the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947. The northern and western portions are administered by Pakistan and comprise three areas: Azad Kashmir, Gilgit, and Baltistan, the last two being part of a territory called the Northern Areas. Administered by India are the southern and southeastern portions, which constitute the state of Jammu and Kashmir but are slated to be split into two union territories.
    2. Pletcher, Kenneth. "Aksai Chin, Plateau Region, Asia". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on April 2, 2019. Retrieved August 16, 2019. Aksai Chin, Chinese (Pinyin) Aksayqin, portion of the Kashmir region, at the northernmost extent of the Indian subcontinent in south-central Asia. It constitutes nearly all the territory of the Chinese-administered sector of Kashmir that is claimed by India to be part of the Ladakh area of Jammu and Kashmir state.
    3. Bosworth, C. E. (2006). "Kashmir". Encyclopedia Americana. Scholastic. p. 328. ISBN 978-0-7172-0139-6. Archived from the original on January 17, 2023. Retrieved September 20, 2019. KASHMIR, kash'mer, the northernmost region of the Indian subcontinent, administered partlv by India, partly by Pakistan, and partly by China. The region has been the subject of a bitter dispute between India and Pakistan since they became independent in 1947
    4. Osmańczyk, Edmund Jan (2003). "Jammu and Kashmir". Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements. Vol. G to M. Taylor & Francis. pp. 1191ff. ISBN 978-0-415-93922-5. Archived from the original on January 17, 2023. Retrieved June 12, 2023. Jammu and Kashmir: Territory in northwestern India, subject to a dispute between India and Pakistan. It has borders with Pakistan and China.
    5. Talbot, Ian (2016). A History of Modern South Asia: Politics, States, Diasporas. Yale University Press. pp. 28–29. ISBN 978-0-300-19694-8. We move from a disputed international border to a dotted line on the map that represents a military border not recognized in international law. The line of control separates the Indian and Pakistani administered areas of the former Princely State of Jammu and Kashmir.
    6. Skutsch, Carl (2015) [2007]. "China: Border War with India, 1962". In Ciment, James (ed.). Encyclopedia of Conflicts Since World War II (2nd ed.). London and New York: Routledge. p. 573. ISBN 978-0-7656-8005-1. The situation between the two nations was complicated by the 1957–1959 uprising by Tibetans against Chinese rule. Refugees poured across the Indian border, and the Indian public was outraged. Any compromise with China on the border issue became impossible. Similarly, China was offended that India had given political asylum to the Dalai Lama when he fled across the border in March 1959. In late 1959, there were shots fired between border patrols operating along both the ill-defined McMahon Line and in the Aksai Chin.
    7. Clary, Christopher (2022). The Difficult Politics of Peace: Rivalry in Modern South Asia. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. p. 109. ISBN 9780197638408. Territorial Dispute: The situation along the Sino-Indian frontier continued to worsen. In late July (1959), an Indian reconnaissance patrol was blocked, 'apprehended', and eventually expelled after three weeks in custody at the hands of a larger Chinese force near Khurnak Fort in Aksai Chin. ... Circumstances worsened further in October 1959, when a major class at Kongka Pass in eastern Ladakh led to nine dead and ten captured Indian border personnel, making it by far the most serious Sino-Indian class since India's independence.
    8. Bose, Sumantra (2009). Kashmir: Roots of Conflict, Paths to Peace. Harvard University Press. pp. 294, 291, 293. ISBN 978-0-674-02855-5. J&K: Jammu and Kashmir. The former princely state that is the subject of the Kashmir dispute. Besides IJK (Indian-controlled Jammu and Kashmir. The larger and more populous part of the former princely state. It has a population of slightly over 10 million, and comprises three regions: Kashmir Valley, Jammu, and Ladakh.) and AJK ('Azad' (Free) Jammu and Kashmir. The more populous part of Pakistani-controlled J&K, with a population of approximately 2.5 million.), it includes the sparsely populated 'Northern Areas' of Gilgit and Baltistan, remote mountainous regions which are directly administered, unlike AJK, by the Pakistani central authorities, and some high-altitude uninhabitable tracts under Chinese control.
    9. Fisher, Michael H. (2018). An Environmental History of India: From Earliest Times to the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge University Press. p. 166. ISBN 978-1-107-11162-2. Kashmir's identity remains hotly disputed with a UN-supervised 'Line of Control' still separating Pakistani-held Azad ('Free') Kashmir from Indian-held Kashmir.
    10. Snedden, Christopher (2015). Understanding Kashmir and Kashmiris. Oxford University Press. p. 10. ISBN 978-1-84904-621-3. Some politicised terms also are used to describe parts of J&K. These terms include the words 'occupied' and 'held'.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference brit was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "Kashmir profile". BBC News. November 26, 2014. Archived from the original on July 16, 2015. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
  4. ^ a b Tahir, Pervez. "Education spending in AJK". The Express Tribune. Archived from the original on March 20, 2022. Retrieved December 8, 2022.
  5. ^ "Sub-national HDI - Area Database - Global Data Lab". hdi.globaldatalab.org. Archived from the original on September 23, 2018. Retrieved March 15, 2020.
  6. ^ Bose, Sumantra (2009). Contested Lands. Harvard University Press. p. 193. ISBN 978-0-674-02856-2. Archived from the original on January 17, 2023. Retrieved December 21, 2016. Azad Kashmir – 'Free Kashmir', the more populated and nominally self-governing part of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir
  7. ^ "Azad Kashmir". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on October 23, 2020.
  8. ^ See:
  9. ^ "Azad Kashmir". Encyclopædia Britannica. Archived from the original on October 12, 2020. Retrieved April 17, 2021.
  10. ^ "Underdevelopment in AJK". The News International. Archived from the original on September 16, 2016. Retrieved June 18, 2016.
  11. ^ "Education emergency: AJK leading in enrolment, lagging in quality". The Express Tribune. March 26, 2013. Archived from the original on August 7, 2016. Retrieved June 18, 2016.


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