Ag Agencies
GILGIT: A number of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) workers were taken into custody and its regional election office was sealed on Tuesday as protests continued for a second straight day in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) over the party’s claims of rigging in the GBA-2 constituency of the territory.
The PPP and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) have been crying foul over the GB election results in which the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) won 10 seats of the 24 seats up for election. Last week, five independent winners joined the party, setting it up to form a government in GB.
On Monday, protests against the results turned violent as PPP workers and police clashed in Gilgit. Demonstrations were also held in Skardu and Chilas. A government building and four vehicles were reportedly torched. On Tuesday, PPP workers’ protests saw roads blocked with burning tires in Gilgit and in other cities as well. Some sit-ins were called off due to the cold. PTI ministers and PPP traded barbs over the violence, with federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan Ali Amin Gandapur insisting the elections were “free and fair” and thanked the people for “rejecting” the PPP and the PML-N.
He said the PML-N and the PPP leadership had started levelling allegations of rigging even before the election in their campaigns and “tried to create chaos, but they failed and did not succeed in their nefarious aims”.
Gandapur slammed the vandalism and said taking law into one’s own hands “will not be allowed at any cost”. He said vote counting in GBA-2 constituency has been done five times at the request of the opposing candidate. “Anyone not satisfied with the election results should go to the election tribunal.”
He said the opposition parties were making verbal claims and no one was ready to produce any evidence before the GB election commission which had shown “complete impartiality” in the election.
PPP Senator Sherry Rehman meanwhile claimed it was the PTI that was “spreading chaos in Gilgit-Baltistan to cover up their fraud”, according to Geo News. She also questioned the basis on which the party’s office there was sealed. “Our election was stolen, the people’s vote was stolen,” Rehman alleged. “Peaceful protest against fraud is our constitutional right,” she added.
“PPP workers are peaceful, it is PTI workers that are making a fuss,” Rehman said. “The government should arrest those involved in mischief, not our workers.”
PTI candidate Fatehullah Khan was successful from GBA-2, said a notification issued by GB Election Commissoner Shahbaz Khan, according to Geo News. PTI was declared successful in 10 seats, independent candidates won seven seats, PPP three, PML-N two, while JUI-F and MWM won one seat each. PTI won two out of the three seats reserved for technocrats, while PPP one. Four out of six reserved seats for women went to PTI. A reserved seat for women was won by the PPP and one by PML-N.
