MIR Afzaal Sulehria is a Muzaffarabad-born political activist who has always struggled for the independence of Jammu and Kashmir.

He is contesting the July 21 elections for the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly from more than one constituency and from the platform of more than one party.

When the presidential and legislative assembly elections were held in AJK for the first time on the basis of adult franchise in 1970, many pro-independence leaders were among the contestants. Among them was guerilla leader Mohammad Maqbool Butt, who was in the fray from three constituencies of Pakistan-based Kashmiri refugees.

Raja Muzaffar, a former leader of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), who was his polling agent in Rawalpindi Cantonment area, alleges that non-Kashmiris, instead of genuine Kashmiri voters, were allowed to vote to ensure that Mr Butt did not succeed.

`All my objections against vote casting bynon-Kashmiris were rejected outright by the officials concerned,` he recalls.

The presidential election was won by Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan of the Muslim Conference (MC), a pro-establishment party. He defeated K. H. Khurshid and Sardar Ibrahim Khan.

Hardly after a year in office, president Qayyum introduced a provision in AJK`s constitution of 1970 to discourage the pro-independence parties participation in the electoral process.

The constitutional amendment bill touched upon fundamental rights, establishment of a supreme court and the Gilgit-Baltistan issue. It was passed by the legislature in the absence of a dissenting voice from the opposition.

When the 1970 constitution was replaced by the existing AJK Interim Constitution Act of 1974, the provision concerning the pro-independence element was retained and there was no dissenting voice this time either from any other political party.

The provision reads: `No person or political party in Azad Jammu and Kashmir shall be permitted to propagate against, or take part in activities prejudicial or detrimental to, the ideology of the state`s accession to Pakistan.

An aspiring candidate for the legislative assembly is required to put his signature under the following declaration: `I have consented to my nomination (by the proposer and seconder); I am not subject to any disqualification; and I believe in the ideology of Pakistan, ideology of state`s accession to Pakistan, and the integrity and sovereignty of Pakistan.

After launch of the armed struggle in India-held Kashmir in 1989, pro-independence groups have by and large stayed away from the AJK`s power politics. And whenever any of them took part in the process, they crossed out the declaration about accession of Kashmir to Pakistan but only to see their nomination papers rejected by the Election Commission.

Although the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front has decided to boycott the polls, some pro-independence parties have, however, adopted a different strategy this time round to avail themselves of this opportunity.

Except for one candidate, the rest did not cross out the declaration and hence they are among the 423 validly nominated candidates for the July 21 polls.

`We have done it under a game plan... History shows that even the founder of Pakistan had sworn allegiance to the British crown in the beginning even though he struggled against it for partition of India,` Mr Sulehria says.

COUNTERPRODUCTIVE: However, a former jurist is among a number of people who believe that the provision has proved to be counterproductive.

`The UN resolutions give a choice to Kashmiris to decide between India and Pakistan, but we have already excluded India,` says Basharat Ahmed Shaikh, a former judge of the AJK Supreme Court.

`Although the majority has digested this exclusion without demur, this provision has turned out to be counterproductive because it has given room to our enemy (a reference to India) to launch propaganda against Pakistan,` he argues.

A former AJK law secretary, Syed Atta Mohyuddin Qadri, terms the section `a reflection of colonial attitude`. Shaukat Jan Bachh, another retired secretary, says it`s `irrelevant and against the fundamental rights of Kashmiris` But Afsar Shahid, a minister in the outgoing PPP government, defends the condition as one of the `foundational values` required to run a state.

Fifteen years ago, Mr Shahid had contested elections from his Dadyal constituency in Mirpur district as a candidate of the Kashmir Freedom Movement (KFM), a pro-independence party he headed since 1989. However, he did not succeed. In the last general elections, he clinched victory as a nominee of the PPP.

`This condition has foiled designs to create anarchy in Azad Kashmir at the behest of Indian agencies,` he argues.

Mr Sulehria, 35, says candidates from his Kashmir National Party have a two-point manifesto: AJK should get 70 percent profit out of mega projects launched by Pakistan in its territory and the 12 seats of Pakistan-based Kashmiri refugees should be abolished.

However, analyst Syed Arif Bahar has a different perspective.

`Now people judge a candidate on the basis of his clan identity, personal goodwill and his capability to address their day-to-day civic and employment related problems. And that`s why they prefer candidates from major parties over others,` he observes.

`Since the candidates from pro-independence parties do not come up to this yardstick, they get negligible votes.

`And that`s why I believe this provision has merely served as a propaganda tool for India on the one hand and for those who seek asylum in European countries on the other.