PML-N dismisses NCOC letter proposing delay in AJK polls

ISLAMABAD: The PML-N has dismissed a letter by the National Command and Operation Centre proposing a two-month delay in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir elections due to COVID-19.

"What has NCOC got to do with [the] elections?" former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi asked in a media talk on Tuesday.

He called NCOC's suggestion  a conspiracy for rigging. "The same thing that happened in Gilgit-Baltistan is being repeated in Azad Kashmir," he said.

Abbasi questioned whether NCOC talking about a delay in elections is constitutional. "Haven't elections been held in other parts of the country?" he asked.

He insisted that this is an attempt to "steal" the elections in AJK and made references to previous elections in Pakistan.

Let the elections be held according to the will of the people, Abbasi said, adding that the PML-N wants the elections in AJK to be on time. "We reject the NCOC letter. It should be withdrawn," he said.

A day earlier, NCOC had suggested postponing the AJK elections for two months, saying the process will lead to an increase in the number of coronavirus cases.

The NCOC wrote a letter to the chief election commissioner of AJK, stating that due to the rise in the number of coronavirus cases in the country, the polls should be delayed.

The letter said that large political gatherings due to elections will lead to the further spread of the potentially deadly virus in the state.