‘Govt trying to rig Azad Kashmir polls’

LAHORE

Former Punjab Governor and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf Punjab President candidate Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar has said preparation of bogus voter lists for the Azad Kashmir elections is a beginning of rigging. 

In a meeting with a delegation led by PTI Azad Kashmir Secretary General Diwan Ghulam Mohiyuddin at his office, Sarwar said incumbent rulers’ rigging habit was again in action who began rigging for the nine Azad Kashmir seats in Punjab.

Under the supervision of the Election Commission of Pakistan, he said Punjabis were being registered as voters instead of Kashmiris. 

“The PTI will be compelled to launch a massive protest if the ECP continues acting as silent spectator,” he added. He said the PTI would also knock at the doors of the courts.

Chaudhry Sarwar said the PML-N rulers needed to leave the rigging practices and believe in the masses’ right to vote and elect leaders. He said the PTI would not sit silent if the government did not stop rigging practices and added that the party would move the courts and ensure that the rulers could not rig the upcoming Azad Kashmir elections.

Meanwhile, former President Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf Women Wing Punjab Saloni Bokhari has said the writ of government exists nowhere in Pakistan and the rulers have failed to resolve issues politically. 

“Action speaks louder than words and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s inability to govern came through very clearly on Monday evening in a speech that made him seem spineless and incapable of handling the current situation,” said a statement from PTI’s former President Women Wing Punjab Saloni Bokhari and other ex-office-bearers during a meeting held to discuss the tense situation in Lahore and Islamabad. 

“The summoning of 111 Brigade means the nation is on Red Alert and the present rulers have conveniently left the tough job to the army, the PML-N has buckled under pressure, said Saloni Bokhari.