A recent statement by Pakistan-occupied Kashmir's prime minister Raja Farooq Haider Khan has started to justify rumors of Islamabad’s plans of annexing its side of Kashmir and declare it as part of mainland Pakistan.

Haider recently said that he could be the final prime minister of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, raising eyebrows of what may be in store for Kashmir and Kashmiris living in PoK.

Kashmiri nationalists have been demanding independence of Kashmir and have always declared India and Pakistan culprits behind what they call illegal territorial divide of Kashmir and demarcation of the Line of Control (LoC), which has witnessed bloody clashes between the Indian and Pakistani forces and has claimed lives of Kashmiris living on both sides.

Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) has raised serious concerns over the speculations and has connected it with the towering Chinese investment in Pakistan.

Tauqeer Gillani, president of JKLF, has said that China’s increasing investment in Pakistan and the disputed territory of Kashmir may be the reason why Islamabad is thinking of annexation of its side of Kashmir, as it cannot give assurance on disputed territory.

Gillani said Beijing’s investment in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir may result in disaster for Kashmir and its people and may force Pakistan to abandon its decades-long stance over the disputed territory.

"The Chinese are business-oriented people. They want to invest money in our region, but they also want to secure it because ours is a disputed territory and taking the business initiative in such a territory is highly risky. Therefore Beijing is perhaps pushing Islamabad to decide the legal status of our region and annexation is one of the easiest ways to do so," said Gillani.

Gillani also raised serious fears over Pakistan's desperation in seeking increased Chinese investment, stating that Islamabad would do anything to attract foreign investment.

"Look what China did in Sri Lanka, what is it doing in Africa? How can we allow any change in the status of our region for the sake of Chinese investment and Pakistan's ruling elite? We want an independent Kashmir, free from both India and Pakistan," Gillani insisted.

JKLF has maintained that it would strongly resist any move by Islamabad, which would be aimed at ingesting Kashmir into Pakistan’s mainland.