Party insiders say PM’s physical presence in valley needed to counter rallies of opponents.PHOTO: REUTERS
ISLAMABAD: As electoral campaigns in Azad Jammu and Kashmir kick into high gear, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) seems to be feeling the pinch of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s absence from podiums in the valley.
The prime minister’s trip to London for heart surgery could not have come at a more inopportune time for party workers who are wary of a threat posed by large rallies staged by opponents. Though senior party leaders, including ministers and key aides, have been headlining public gatherings in the valley, PML-N insiders say the PM’s physical presence in the valley is necessary to balance the political equation.
“This time it is us and that too at a very crucial stage,” a PML-N stalwart in the valley tells The Express Tribune while likening the timing of the operation to the nasty fall Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran suffered just days before the May 2013 general elections which left him bed-ridden for two weeks.
Elections for the 48-member AJK legislative assembly are expected to be held sometime during the next two months, before the term of the current house expires on July 24. However, dates for the elections have yet to be finalised.
Nawaz, who last visited the valley in April, has afforded space to opponents, such as the PTI and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), who have capitalised on the premier’s absence. They are drawing large crowds at rallies staged up and down the valley including in Muzaffarabad, Bagh, Bhimber and adjoining areas of Neelam Valley.
As if to emphasise the point, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Monday held a large public gathering in Mirpur.
“Speculations are limitless,” states an optimistic Raja Farooq Haider, president of PML-N’s AJK chapter, as he dispels reports of problems faced by the party.
PML-N formally created its AJK chapter in 2011 after top leaders of the then ruling Muslim Conference, led by Haider, left the party and voiced support for Nawaz Sharif.
“The opponents have a right to speculate, it is their job. Let them do so,” he adds.
Asked whether he drew comparisons with the situation PTI faced in 2013, Haider was confident of a PML-N victory.
“In 2013, they (opponents) said that the [PTI] tsunami’s ruthless tides would wipe the PML-N out. And now, they again say they will crush us in the AJK. They were defeated then (2013), they would be defeated again. ”
However, if results of recently concluded elections for AJK’s four-member upper house are of any consequence, the ruling PPP seems to be in the ascendency. It won two of the four seats while the PML-N could take only one seat while the Muslim Conference bagged the last seat.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 31st, 2016.
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