The second phase of elections in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) was held on Sunday (August 2), amid a deadly crackdown on civilians and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s party, PML-N, facing allegations of rigging from coalition partner PPP.The elections were earlier scheduled for July 27, but in an unusual move, were split into three phases in view of the security situation. The elections come amid months of protests spearheaded by the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), a civil society organisation. The region in the last few months has repeatedly seen clashes between the JAAC and the security forces, Internet has been snapped, and allegations have been made of the forces killing protesters.Around 40 people have been killed in the last week alone. India has condemned the use of “ruthless force”, while the United Nations human rights chief has demanded an independent probe. Pakistan, meanwhile, has alleged that India is behind the JAAC’s activities, a charge New Delhi has dismissed.So why are the PoK elections marked with so much unrest this time? The answer lies in the way the Assembly has been set up, and how the region has been historically governed.The 2026 PoK electionsThe PoK Assembly has 53 seats, of which five seats are reserved for women, one for Ulamas (religious scholars), one for Kashmiris living overseas, and one for “technocrats”. Thus, elections are held for 45 seats. Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir 2026 elections at a glance. (Graphic generated using AI)But there is another, much more contentious reservation — that of 12 seats for refugees who migrated from Jammu and Kashmir in 1947. These refugees are settled in different parts of Pakistan, not in PoK. Elections for these 12 seats took place on August 2, along with the nine seats of Muzaffarabad.The abolition of the 12 reserved refugee seats is has become the JAAC’s central demand, and its main flashpoint with the government.Story continues below this adWho are the JAAC?The JAAC was formed as an umbrella platform bringing together traders, lawyers, transporters, students and other civil society groups. It had first started staging protests in 2023 over wheat prices, high electricity charges, the lavish lifestyle enjoyed by officials, and the general economic mismanagement of PoK.Multiple rounds of talks were held between the JAAC and the government, and in October 2025, it came out with 38 demands. Most demands are around bread and butter issues —more funds for education and hospitals, better infrastructure, etc. — or around parity in treatment with the four official provinces of Pakistan, such as the same payment for hydropower generation, etc.The government has in principle agreed to many of these demands, but has maintained that the reserved seats can only be abolished through a constitutional amendment.Also in Explained | What’s behind the PoK protests: Weight of history, woes of the presentSo why are the 12 seats becoming a lighting rod of public anger now?Story continues below this adAnalyst Ayesha Siddiqa, Senior Fellow at King’s College, London, who hails from Pakistan, told The Indian Express, “The civil society had been raising its voice for rights and representations earlier too, but the formation of the JAAC gave it a unified platform. Something changed after 2019, when India revoked Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan did little to oppose it. In PoK, the future had always been tied to the eventual resolution of the Kashmir issue. But after 2019, people started questioning the limbo. They argued that if they are tied to Pakistan, they should be governed better by Pakistan.”Why are the 12 refugee seats in PoK controversial?The main grievance is that the residents of PoK don’t vote for or contest these seats, and neither the voters nor the winners of the seats have much idea of the ground realities of PoK. The 12 seats generally go to whichever party is in power at the Centre, and locals say Islamabad uses the seats to impose its agenda in the PoK Assembly. Police officers detain civil society activists during a demonstration in support of Kashmiri protesters in Lahore, Pakistan, Friday, July 31. (AP Photo)Of the 12 seats, seven are based in Punjab, one in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, one (Jammu-VI) combines refugee voters spread across Punjab, Islamabad and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, one (Valley-I) seat combines voters in Sindh and Balochistan, one (Jammu-I seat) includes refugee voters living across Balochistan, Punjab and Sindh, while Valley-V spans Punjab and Islamabad. The distribution is on the basis of the refugee population’s presence in the regions.Supporters argue that the arrangement preserves the political rights of displaced Kashmiris until the larger Kashmir dispute is resolved. They point out that India too has alloted seats in the Assembly of the state, and later the Union Territory, of Jammu and Kashmir for people living in parts occupied by Pakistan. However, these seats are kept vacant, unlike in PoK.Why the brutal crackdown now?Story continues below this adAnalysts say it is part of a longer contest between an increasingly assertive civil society movement and the Pakistani state.Dr Dhrubajyoti Bhattacharjee, Senior Research Fellow at the Indian Council of World Affairs, said the developments fit a broader historical pattern. “What is being witnessed in PoK is very much part of Pakistan’s pattern of repression, whether in Kashmir or Balochistan or Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Earlier too, PoK has witnessed crackdowns after protests over the Mangla dam or over energy subsidy,” he told The Indian Express.However, TCA Raghavan, India’s former High Commissioner to Pakistan, said the casualties figures are unusually high. “This is possibly because Pakistan’s internal security apparatus is greatly stretched this summer given the situations in Balochistan, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and given the continuing standoff with Afghanistan. Whatever the reason, the situation is a major embarrassment at the very least, and also a blow to Pakistan’s self-perception about Kashmir,” he told The Indian Express.