AJK marks Kashmir Right to Self-Determination Day with rallies across Muzaffarabad, district HQs

What happened

Rallies and seminars were held across Azad Jammu and Kashmir on 5 January 2026 to mark the Right to Self-Determination Day, urging the UN to implement the January 1949 UNCIP resolution on Jammu and Kashmir as a prerequisite for lasting peace in South Asia. In Muzaffarabad, the Pasban-i-Hurriyat Jammu Kashmir (PHJK), an association of post-1989 migrants from Indian-administered Kashmir, organised the central march. It began at Burhan Wani Shaheed Chowk and ended at the UN Observers’ Office near Domel — the confluence of the Neelum and Jhelum rivers — where participants handed over a memorandum.

Speakers said the 5 January 1949 UNCIP resolution had acknowledged the right of the Kashmiri people to determine their own future through a UN-supervised process, and that they were still waiting to exercise that right 77 years later. Similar rallies were held at district headquarters across AJK. A parallel seminar at Kashmir House drew former presidents Sardar Yaqoob Khan and Sardar Muhammad Masood Khan, former premiers Raja Farooq Haider and Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan, and APHC leader Altaf Ahmed Bhat.

What was said at the conferences

AJK Legislative Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Latif Akbar told the Muzaffarabad rally that the UN must ensure implementation of its own resolutions. PHJK chairman Uzair Ahmed Ghazali urged global rights bodies to secure the release of political prisoners. AJK Prime Minister Raja Faisal Mumtaz Rathore, addressing a Friends of Kashmir seminar at the Pakistan Institute of Parliamentary Services in Islamabad, said Kashmir remained a disputed territory and the struggle could not be ignored indefinitely. At an Institute of Strategic Studies (ISSI) conference hosted with the Kashmir Institute of International Relations (KIIR) and the All Parties Hurriyet Conference (APHC), senior APHC leader Farooq Rehmani said India had raised one objection after another since 1949, and that since August 2019 it had been pursuing demographic change in Indian-administered Kashmir, including issuing thousands of domicile certificates to non-Kashmiri Indians.

Why it matters

The AJK events coincided with the national-level message issued in Islamabad by National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, who said the resolution of Kashmir in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions was essential for lasting regional peace. The convergence of the rallies, the Friends of Kashmir seminar and the ISSI conference underscored the domestic consensus behind invoking the UN framework on the same day.

Sources & reporting notes

This article is a synthesis of published material, not original reporting. Sources were reviewed on 5–6 January 2026.

1. Dawn (Newspaper Staff) — Rallies across AJK mark Right to Self-Determination DayPublished 6 January 2026 · Primary reporting from Muzaffarabad and Islamabad on the 5 January rallies, the PHJK march to the UN Observers' Office at Domel, the Friends of Kashmir seminar, and the ISSI-KIIR-APHC conference; underpins every named speaker and quote.
2. Dawn (Newspaper Staff) — Kashmir issue must be resolved under UN resolutions: Ayaz SadiqPublished 5 January 2026 · Provides the parallel national-level message from National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and Deputy Speaker Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah on the same date, contextualising the AJK events within Pakistan's official position.