Sour grapes?: Recall IGP, chief secretary, AJK PM asks centre

Claims they defied his orders during LA-22 bypolls; secretary’s office says election commissioner responsible .


Our Correspondent February 24, 2014
AJK PM Chaudhry Abdul Majeed. PHOTO: AFP

MUZAFFARABAD:


The loss of an Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly seat seems to have stung the state’s prime minister, who has accused the state’s police chief and its senior-most bureaucrat of defying his orders to influence the result.


AJK Prime Minister Chaudhry Abdul Majeed has refused to accept the services of Azad Kashmir Chief Secretary Khyzer Hayat Gondal and Inspector General of Police (IGP) Malik Khuda Bukh Awan any longer and has asked the federal government to recall them as soon as possible.

Majeed told The Express Tribune that both officers bypassed him while calling in the Rangers for the by-elections in LA-22 Sudhnuti, Poonch-VI.

The seat had fallen vacant after former AJK Agriculture Minister Akhtar Hussain Rabbani died on December 25. The late PPP member’s son Faheem Akhtar Rabbani contested the seat as a candidate from the same party and lost to Farooq Ahmad Tahir of the PML-N.

“When an officer does not obey the order of the prime minister, we don’t need his services,” said Majeed.

He claimed that the chief secretary and the IGP played partial roles during the by-election.

Majeed has asked the state’s top bureaucracy and heads of government departments to disobey the instructions and any official orders from the Chief Secretary’s office and the Central Police Office.

Meanwhile, the spokesman for the chief secretary said the chief secretary did not call in Rangers personnel during the by-elections, but rather, they were called in by the AJK chief election commissioner, who is independent and is not answerable to the AJK premier.

The chief secretary’s spokesman further said that in the past, Frontier Constabulary , Rangers and army personnel  have been called in during the by-elections and Muharram without permission from the prime ministers of the time.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz AJK chapter Secretary General Shah Ghulam Qadir felt that Majeed is only upset because the chief secretary and IGP refused the prime minister’s wish to rig the by-election.

“Refusing the services of the chief secretary and IGP is ample proof of Prime Minister Majeed’s frustration. He should accept the result of the by-election rather than blaming them,” Qadir added.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 24th, 2014.

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