PPP, PMLN, JI oppose delaying AJK polls

ISLAMABAD: Major political parties have rejected postponement of lections for the Legislative Assembly of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir for two months as proposed the

National Command Operation Center (NCOC). They demanded timely elections in the AJ&K. “The PTI federal government wants to postpone AJK elections as it has failed to get candidates for elections,” said PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in a meeting with President PPP Azad Jammu and Kashmir Chaudhry Latif Akbar and opposition leader of AJK Assembly Chaudhry Yasin who called on him at Zardari House Islamabad on Monday.

Former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf was also present on the occasion. AJK PPP leaders briefed the PPP chairman about the political situation in the Valley and said that the federal government wanted to postpone the AJK election. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari directed to run a full-fledged campaign for free and fair elections in AJK and said that AJK is a stronghold of the PPP. He said that the PPP candidates will win the elections in AJK by a huge margin.

Meanwhile, former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on Monday warned that if elections in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) were delayed or postponed then it would weaken the Kashmir cause.

“The NCOC has proposed the delay in election in AJK on the excuse of corona, while the real target was to postpone the elections in the AJK and the PPP rejects the decision to delay and as it was an effort to rig the elections,” he said while addressing a press conference along with opposition leader in the AJK Assembly Chaudhry Yasin here at National Press Club on Monday.

Raja Pervez Ashraf said the government was delaying the elections in AJK to avoid the defeat there. He said the elections in AJK in 2006 were held even after the earthquake hit AJK.

The former premier questioned that when the elections of the Gilgit-Baltistan were held and then there was no COVID-19. “The elections were held throughout the world even in the United States despite the COVID-19,” he said.

He said the Constitution of AJK is clearly says that elections be held within 60 days prior of completion of tenure. “The government is constitutional bound to hold the elections in AJK before July 29,” he said. Pervez Ashraf said the government was making effort for horse trading and using all tactics to force the people to change their loyalties. “The PPP will not let the government steal the people’s mandate,” he said. He reminded the premier that he used to say often that if inflation rises, then the prime minister is to blame. “The whole country has been mortgaged to the International Monetary Fund,” he said.

Meanwhile addressing a press conference here on Monday Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani along with President AJK PPP Latif Akbar said that the elections in AJK cannot be postponed or delayed as the AJK constitution is very clear on the issue and elections cannot be delayed. He said that the NCOC and the government wanted to postpone the Azad Kashmir elections in the garb of COVID-19. He said that according to the Constitution of Azad Kashmir, postponement is not permissible.

He said the Azad Kashmir Assembly’s term is going to complete on July 29 and it is a constitutional obligation to hold elections 60 days before the end of the assembly term. “Any effort to postpone the elections clearly means that PTI is weak in Azad Kashmir,” he said.

Chaudhry Latif Akbar demanded the Election Commission to immediately issue the schedule of elections. Meanwhile, PMLN leader and Azad Kashmir’s Minister for Endowments and Religious Affairs Raja Abdul Qayyum Khan said that Azad Kashmir is a budding plant and should be allowed to flourish. Intervention in Azad Kashmir through NCOC is not acceptable. Seconding the statement by the prime minister of Azad Kashmir, he also said that the delay in the elections was not acceptable in any case.

Meanwhile, PTI leader Sardar Tanveer Ilyas has said that all conspiracies to postpone Azad Kashmir elections will be foiled. In his statement, Sardar Tanveer said that Prime Minister Imran Khan wants clean, transparent and timely elections in Azad Kashmir, Azad Kashmir will thwart all conspiracies to postpone elections. He said that the situation of COVID-19 in Azad Kashmir was under control and there was a big conspiracy behind the letter of NCOC.

Abdul Rashid Turabi, former emir of Jamaat-e-Islami Azad Kashmir and parliamentary leader in the Azad Kashmir Assembly, meanwhile, said in a statement that the ruling party sitting in Islamabad should avoid to conspire postponement of elections in order to get their desired results.

Meanwhile, Minister for Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan Affairs Ali Amin Khan Gandapur on Monday categorically rejected the propaganda of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) that federal government had caused delay in upcoming general elections of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). In his reaction to the news conference of PPP senior leader and former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, the minister said neither his ministry nor federal government had made any request regarding postponement of AJK polls. “The National Command Operation Center (NCOC), as an independent institution, makes its own decisions based on ground realities about the pandemic,” he clarified.

“The opposition, instead of blaming others, should correct its own ranks. The nation is fed up from their family politics,” he said. The minister said the people had recognised their ugly face and had rejected them in 2018 general elections. “It also lost elections in GB and now defeat would be their fate in the AJK elections, he added. He said that the situation on PPP side was that it did not have candidates to contest 50 percent seats in the upcoming Azad Jammu and Kashmir polls. “The PTI will also form a government in AJK with two-thirds majority as it had demonstrated in GB election,” he maintained.

Gandapur added that the role of Prime Minister Imran Khan, in highlighting the Kashmir, had been remained unprecedented, adding that his vision, clear-cut policy on Kashmir and public relief initiatives like issuance of health card has won the hearts of Kashmiris.