{"id":8703,"date":"2026-08-01T08:50:55","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T08:50:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/?p=8703"},"modified":"2026-08-01T08:50:55","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T08:50:55","slug":"khawaja-asif-says-he-never-claimed-rawalakot-residents-are-not-kashmiris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/?p=8703","title":{"rendered":"Khawaja Asif Says He Never Claimed Rawalakot Residents Are Not Kashmiris"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>SIALKOT:<\/strong> Pakistan\u2019s Defence Minister <strong>Khawaja Asif<\/strong> has said he never claimed that the people of Rawalakot are not Kashmiris, reaffirming his support for the people of Jammu and Kashmir during a public gathering in Sialkot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Addressing a political rally, the senior Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader said the government would not allow the reserved seats for <strong>Kashmiri refugees<\/strong> to be abolished, describing them as the rightful stakeholders of the Kashmir cause.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI never said that the people of Rawalakot are not Kashmiris,\u201d Khawaja Asif stated, rejecting reports suggesting otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He also said that slogans in favor of Pakistan continue to be raised in <strong>Indian-administered Kashmir<\/strong>, which he described as evidence of the people\u2019s continued attachment to Pakistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Commenting on political developments in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, the defence minister criticized the <strong>Action Committee<\/strong>, accusing it of promoting unrest and violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He claimed that the committee\u2019s demands had already been accepted in the past and said the government had previously provided it with <strong>Rs24\u201325 billion<\/strong> to address its concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Khawaja Asif further alleged that members of the Action Committee were \u201csuspicious\u201d and operating with <strong>foreign funding<\/strong>, though he did not present evidence to support the claim during his speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Expressing confidence in his party\u2019s electoral prospects, the minister said the <strong>Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz<\/strong> would form the next government in <strong>Azad Jammu and Kashmir<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The remarks came during a political address as parties continue campaigning ahead of the upcoming electoral process in the region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SIALKOT: Pakistan\u2019s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has said he never claimed that the people of Rawalakot are not Kashmiris, reaffirming his support for the people..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8704,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/439149_1051361_updates-1.jpg",700,400,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/439149_1051361_updates-1-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/439149_1051361_updates-1-300x171.jpg",300,171,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/439149_1051361_updates-1.jpg",700,400,false],"large":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/439149_1051361_updates-1.jpg",700,400,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/439149_1051361_updates-1.jpg",700,400,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/paksouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/439149_1051361_updates-1.jpg",700,400,false]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/?cat=3\" rel=\"category\">Pakistan<\/a>","tag_info":"Pakistan","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8703"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8705,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8703\/revisions\/8705"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}