Pakistan

PML-N to protest against poll ‘rigging’

Rejects AJK election results; accuses PTI of manipulating electoral exercise

Our Correspondent July 28, 2021

Vice President Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Maryam Nawaz addressing a rally in AJK on July 12, 2021. SCREENGRAB

MUZAFFARABAD:

The PML-N has rejected the results of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) general election and accused the ruling PTI of large-scale rigging. The opposition party, which was ruling the region for the last 5 years, also announced a protest movement.

The PTI emerged as the biggest party in AJK after winning 25 seats in the Sunday’s general election in the region. The party routed the PML-N which could only secure 6 general seats.

On Tuesday, the PML-N key leaders – Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Ahsan Iqbal and AJK’s former premier Raja Farooq Haider –addressed a press conference in the AJK’s capital to reject the election results.

Read: Maryam, Bilawal reject AJK poll results

“We reject the election results. We will launch a movement against this rigging in Pakistan as well as across the world and expose [Prime Minister] Imran Khan,” Haider said

He said people were deprived of their right to choose their elected representatives and the PTI used money to buy votes. “The AJK was deprived of its rights. We will gather in Islamabad on Friday to tell the world about this massive rigging,” he added.

Ahsan Iqbal said the aim of the protest is not just to highlight the rigging but also to end this practice. He claimed that this alleged rigging is part of an international conspiracy to alienate the people of the AJK from Pakistan and to fan the anti-Pakistan sentiments in the region.

“It is on international imperialists’ agenda to pave the way for formation of an independent Kashmiri state. Even Prime Minister Imran Khan has spilled the beans by saying that his government will hold a second referendum in the valley to allow the Kashmiris to choose between Pakistan and independence.”

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday said his government would hold a referendum in the disputed Himalayan valley of Jammu and Kashmir – after a UN plebiscite – to determine if Kashmiris want to be a part of Pakistan or independence as he is certain that Kashmiris will opt for Pakistan.

“It is being said that I want to turn the AJK into a province, I don’t know where it came from,” the premier said while addressing a huge election rally at Tarar Khal area of the AJK.

The premier was alluding to a statement of PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz who on July 18 claimed during an election speech in the AJK that the PTI government had taken a decision to turn the disputed valley into a province.

Prime Minister Imran said his government strongly believes in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions under which the people of Jammu and Kashmir were given the right to choose whether they wanted to accede to Pakistan or India.

“InshaAllah, I am confident that the sacrifices of Kashmiri people will not go in vain and the day is not far when the referendum [plebiscite] in Kashmir will be held to give them right to decide about their fate.

“Later, my government will hold another referendum in Kashmir to know if the people want to become a part of Pakistan or want complete independence,” the PM had added.

According to Ahsan Iqbal, the premier through that statement had not only ridiculed the great sacrifices of the Kashmiris but had also tried to change the scheme of the partition of the subcontinent.

“It [PM’s statement] was an attack on the foundations of Pakistan and was part of a great conspiracy,” the PML-N leader added.

Video of rigging

PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz on Tuesday also shared a video of alleged rigging at one of the polling stations at the recently held AJK polls.

In the over 2-minute-long video, the polling staff in Sheikh Soli Primary School Polling Station at Forward Kahuta is stamping on empty ballots allegedly in favour of the PTI.

The man who is making the video clip from a mobile phone [allegedly an official of the Frontier Constabulary] takes exception to the activity and registers his protest but the polling staff tells him to do his job and not to interfere.