Ministers defend AJK polls as 'free and fair'

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah on Tuesday described the first phase of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly elections as "peaceful, fair, free and credible", while inviting opposition parties to pursue constitutional remedies if they wished to challenge the results.

Addressing a joint press conference alongside Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan Amir Muqam in Islamabad, Sanaullah said the people of AJK had exercised their democratic right by electing representatives on 13 seats during polling held on July 27.

Citing Election Commission figures, he said the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) won nine seats, while the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) secured four.

Meanwhile, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, accompanied by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, dismissed Bilawal's allegations as "undemocratic" and urged the PPP chairman to refrain from making "immature statements".

He questioned the PPP's governance record in Sindh, arguing that voters had chosen between the PML-N's development model and the PPP's poor performance.