Authorities IN Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) rejected on Thursday the nomination papers of pro-independence candidates for the State Assembly elections, saying that they refused to declare allegiance to Pakistan. The elections for the 40-member Parliament of the Pakistani part of the disputed Himalayan region called Azad Kashmir are scheduled for July 5. The region has an autonomous status and its own Constitution, which declares Kashmir's accession to Pakistan its main objective. But 80 candidates belonging to the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front and the Peoples' National Party, which advocates an independent Kashmir, refused to accept the condition and struck it off from the nomination papers, said Election Commission official Abdul Rashid Suleria.