Nominated AJK PM Farooq is a bold man

ISLAMABAD: Raja Farooq Haider will return to the office of  Azad Jammu and Kashmir Prime Minister after six years when he had an eventful year in the office, including a meeting with the then head of an agency to prove his patriotism. 

Raja Farooq is a diehard PML-N worker and a rare fighter politician who asserts his view despite all odds. For AJK, standing up for a cause before those controlling it, demands real courage and Raja Farooq Haider showed such courage in 2010.

It was because of Farooq’s daring stance that the former agency head cast doubts on Raja Farooq’s loyalty to Pakistan. A meeting was arranged in mid-March 2010 in Marriot's in Islamabad, and Raja Farooq Haider explained his viewpoint satisfying the agency head about his loyalty. The News had reported the incident in 2010. 

Raja Farooq Haider had told this correspondent in 2010 that people had created an impression that he was an anti-state person, and he met the agency head to clarify his position. “I convinced him and at the end of the meeting he said that after listening to your views, I have found you a patriotic person,” Haider had said. 

Details reveal that a crisis was created by Pervez Musharraf’s military government in AJK judiciary when a six-year junior judge was made the chief justice of AJK Supreme Court. The senior most judge was fighting legal war against that judge. The political governments, which were changing almost every year, were handcuffed to take any decision. When Raja Farooq Haider became  AJK PM, he moved a reference against the sitting  AJK CJ and as a result the CJ was booted out. 

Haider, on various occasions, was offered many deals to tie up with the then illegal AJK CJ by influential politicians and businessmen of AJK, but “No” was the answer of Farooq Haider every time. Raja Farooq Haider had confirmed to The News about these deals and his brave No. Being  AJK PM in 2010, Haider had also reservations about a judge who, according to the ex-registrar of the AJK High Court, had made a scared-run leaving one  of his sandals in the registrar’s office after seeing an agency official when the judge attempted to influence the said registrar in a matter of writ petition. The ex-registrar had mentioned this incident in his affidavit submitted in the Supreme Judicial Council of AJK. 

Haider is known for his boldness and has confronted the Pakistan government on various occasions as AJK PM in the past as he protested over the budget-cut for AJK by federal government in 2010.