Decades-long wait ends for West Pakistan refugees

Ending decades-long wait, West Pakistani refugees will cast their votes for the first time in the J&K Assembly elections tomorrow. The refugees had migrated from areas in Pakistan adjoining parts of Jammu region.

Most of these refugees are settled in border areas of Kathua and Jammu districts which will go to the polls in the third and final phase of the elections on Tuesday. The community members got the right to vote in the Assembly elections only after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019. Earlier, they were allowed to vote in the Lok Sabha elections, but did not enjoy voting rights in the Assembly elections.

Most of the West Pakistani refugees had come from Sialkot area in Pakistan. A majority of them are Dalits. They were not considered a ‘state subject’ unlike the displaced persons from Pakistan Occupied J&K (PoJK). So, they could not apply for government jobs in erstwhile state of J&K.

Labha Ram Gandhi, president of the West Pakistani Refugees Action Committee, said: “It will be a festival for us tomorrow as we will vote for the time to elect our MLAs. This became possible only after the abrogation of Article 370.” He said Kashmir-centric governments were against the community getting voting rights.

As per official records, there are nearly 5,400 families who migrated from Pakistan to the border areas of Jammu. They comprised of Hindus and Sikhs. It is believed that these families have now grown to over 22,000.

At least 300 families of the Valmiki community, who were brought to Jammu from Punjab in 1957 as sanitation workers by the then government, will also vote for the first time in the Assembly elections. They now constitute over 3,000 members.