AJK polls campaign reduced to smearing

ISLAMABAD: Politicking ahead of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) elections has reached its peak with top leaders of different parties issuing fiery statements to garner support of voters.

The PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Wednesday slammed PMLN, and said the people who earlier believed in the politics of "do or die" have now shifted to the politics of "begging".

Bilawal, addressing an election rally in Azad Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch area, claimed his political opponents say that if they have to "beg" to become the prime minister, they will do it. The PPP chairman said if the opposition decides to move a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan or Punjab Chief Minister Usman Bazdar his party would support them.

"But we will not become a part of a political alliance to eat halwa or nihari in the future," he said. Bilawal said jiyalas would head towards Banigala — PM Imran Khan's residence — after achieving success in the upcoming AJK elections. And then he turned his guns towards the PTI saying, "The real face of ‘tabdeeli’ is historic inflation, poverty, and unemployment."

Bilawal said that said that the AJK elections are very important and the Jiyalas will send a message on both sides of the border that "Kashmir Pe Soda, Na Manzoor". “Whatever tyranny is happening in Occupied Kashmir cannot be tolerated by the people of Azad Kashmir as we are not the ones who pray for Modi's win nor do we invite Modi to our weddings,” he said.

The PPP chairman said the people of Kashmir will take their own decisions and if the Kashmiri people say that they want peace then there will be peace and if they want war then there will be a war. “Islamabad and Delhi will have to accept the decision of Kashmiri people,” he said.

Bilawal said the PPP defeated Imran Khan to sixth position in Karachi, but the PPP’s friends in opposition started fighting with it. “We will not give an inch of space to Imran Khan,” he said. “Imran is lying by saying that he will not provide airbases to the United States, because this decision of not providing air bases was taken by the Parliament during the PPP government,” he said.

Reacting to Bilawal’s statement, former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said Bilawal is using cheap language. He said while talking to a private news channel that he would not stop if he started talking about a deal. He said he would not indulge into talk about deal, but if the PPP was doing a deal, than it is a bad thing. He said only the people of Pakistan must have the right to decide about their choice of government, not anyone else. He also rejected Asif Ali Zardari’s statement that Nawaz Sharif has a better ‘domicile’ than him. He said Zardari was getting more concession than anyone else in his cases.

Minister for Communications Murad Saeed said in his reaction to Bilawal’s statement that those talking about Kashmir had removed the billboards of Kashmir on the occasion of Rajiv Gandhi’s visit to Islamabad.

Addressing a public meeting, Murad Saeed said people also know about Nawaz Sharif who brought Narendra Modi to his Jati Umra house and held meetings with Sajjan Jindal at his residence. Murad Saeed said Bilawal, who became party chairman on a ‘parchi’ is more concerned about saving the corruption of his father.