AJK elections 2016: We did not beg for electoral alliance, says ex-PM

Sardar Attique Ahmad lashes out at PML-N

MUZAFFARABAD: In reaction to statements made by PML-N leaders, former prime minister and president of the All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference, Sardar Attique Ahmad Khan, on Saturday stated that his party had not begged the party for an electoral alliance.

“It was PML-N’s desire, and if they want to contest the elections independently we have no problem,” Khan said while talking to the media.

The statement came after PML-N leaders — Sardar Sikandar Hayat, Farooq Haider and Special Assistant to PM Nawaz Sharif Dr Asif Kirmani — in a press conference on Friday announced that PML-N will contest the AJK elections separately. They also rebuffed the possibility of any alliance with the AJKMC in the polls.

The former AJK premier said his party was thankful to Hayat for letting them know in time that the PML-N was not planning to enter an alliance with the AJKMC.

“We have other options to contest elections under the grand alliance with other political parties of AJK. We have been in the public for the past five years, and people will decide about the future of AJKMC candidates,” Khan added.

The party’s president said Hayat’s press conference showed that he is the only PML-N leader in the AJK chapter whom Sharif likes, and that the remaining are unsure about their political futures.

“The PML-N has a specific agenda to endorse Kashmir’s division under the formula floated by the former AJK chief justice Mazoor Hussain Gilani. Following the formation of the government in Muzaffarabad, PML-N will work to stamp provincial statuses for AJK and Gilgit-Baltistan,” Khan added.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 27^th, 2016.