Representation explains PoK protests & UT of Jammu & Kashmir’s progress

New Delhi: Residents of the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) elect five members of the Lok Sabha and their own legislative assembly. In Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, no resident holds a seat in Pakistan’s National Assembly or Senate. That difference in political status framed recent events on both sides.

In the Indian Union Territory of J&K, voters cast ballots in assembly elections in September–October 2024 after the Supreme Court directed that polls be held by 30 September. Turnout stood at 63.88 per cent. The preceding Lok Sabha election recorded 58.46 per cent participation, the highest in 35 years. Residents who contested the 2019 changes to the territory’s status took the matter to the Supreme Court, which ordered the elections. Grievances have institutional routes: a legislature, the courts and the ballot.

In Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, the July 2026 elections saw major protests and a brutal crackdown. Authorities banned the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) on 5 June under anti-terrorism laws and rejected the nomination papers of members who sought to stand as independents. The main opposition, the Pakistan People’s Party, alleged irregularities; the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz denied them.

Gilgit-Baltistan is not a constitutional unit of Pakistan and remains excluded from the Senate, the National Finance Commission and the Council of Common Interests, the bodies that divide national resources. Pakistan-occupied Kashmir has its own assembly, yet all ten general elections since 1975 have produced governments aligned with the party in power in Islamabad. Freedom House’s 2026 report states that Pakistani federal institutions dominate security, the courts and key policy in both areas. The report said, “Small nationalist parties opposed to union with Pakistan are actively marginalized or barred outright from the political process.”

The JAAC began with everyday complaints over electricity bills and the price of flour before expanding to elite privileges and reserved assembly seats.

In October 2025, protests under a communications blackout left at least ten people dead. After talks collapsed in May 2026, authorities reinstated 177 criminal cases against members. The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project recorded at least 56 JAAC-led protests after the ban, despite the crackdown. Development outcomes follow the same line.

The Indian union territory of J&K’s budget is about 3.7 times larger per resident than that of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, and its voters can hold representatives to account for spending. In Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, electricity tariffs are treated as a federal matter; relief of 23 billion rupees followed deadly clashes. One side’s problems reach the agenda through votes and courts. The other side’s reach it through street protests and funerals.

In the Indian union territory of J&K, an elected government sits in Srinagar, and five elected members sit in Delhi. In Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, the largest recent protest movement was banned weeks before the vote, and no one from the territory sits in Islamabad’s parliament. One side is part of the conversation about its future. The other is still trying to get into the room.