Election manoeuvres: Nawaz Sharif eyes seat adjustment in AJK polls

Summons meeting of leaders after Eid; PML-N adjusts two seats with Jamat-e-Islami

ISLAMABAD: Dissatisfied with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s ongoing campaign for the upcoming general elections in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is considering seat adjustments with other political parties in the valley to counter political opponents. However, he may find his options limited.

In this regard, Nawaz, who is also the president of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), has summoned a meeting of PML-N AJK chapter after Eidul Fitr, political sources told The Express Tribune.

Elections on 41 seats of the AJK legislative assembly are scheduled for July 21.

It is expected that Nawaz will discuss striking additional electoral adjustments with other political parties, especially the Jamaat-e-Islami, to battle the electoral nexus between Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the Muslim Conference.

The PTI and MC have fielded joint candidates on at least seven seats of the 48-member legislative assembly in the valley. There is a possibility that this number may rise to 10 as the elections draw closer.

Meanwhile, the PML-N has struck deals with JI for only two seats so far. The JI, which is fielding a total of eight candidates in the valley, has struck a deal with MC for one seat -- in addition to the adjustment with PML-N.

Sources in the PML-N are of the view that the party leadership is concerned about the aggressive political strategy adopted by opponents such as PTI and MC, the two ‘arch rivals’.

“Given the history of MC’s hostility towards PML-N, there is hardly any possibility of a joint venture in the polls,” said a senior PML-N leader who has substantial say in AJK’s political matters for the party.

“The PP and PML-N stand poles apart, politically and ideologically. And PML-N and PTI just do not go together. Problems are brewing and there are not too many options on hand for us,” the PML-N leader explained to The Express Tribune while requesting anonymity.

The PML-N chapter for the valley is quite young, formed only in 2011 as a breakaway faction of the MC led by former AJK prime minister Raja Farooq Haider. Haider formed the group after he stepped down as the AJK prime minister in 2010 and subsequently left the then ruling MC. He was replaced by Sardar Attique Ahmad Khan, who had moved the no-confidence motion against Haider.

Haider believes it is too early to predict the PML-N’s campaign fortunes.

“Till the elections take place and you see the results, everything is an assumption and presumption. Just wait for the results and see PML-N come up with flying colours,” he confidently told The Express Tribune.

Abdul Rasheed Turabi, chief of JI’s AJK chapter, said his party is eyeing the possibility of becoming a parliamentary force in the upcoming elections.

“We have not set very ambitious targets [for JI] but we will make sure we are a parliamentary party in the AJK LA,” he told The Express Tribune. 

“We are quite certain that the results of the seats where we have seat adjustments with the PML-N and MC will go our way.”

The PML-N already considers itself at a disadvantage in the valley due to the extended absence of PM Nawaz from the campaign owing to his heart surgery in London. In contrast, top leaders of PTI, PPP including Imran Khan and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari are aggressively leading their parties’ in their respective election campaigns.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 5^th, 2016.