Police also abetted attackers
ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to the Prime Minster for Political Affairs Dr Asif Saeed Kirmani has alleged that Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Prime Minister Chaudhry Abdul Majeed was giving ‘instructions’ to people who attacked a political gathering in Nakyal.
Addressing a news conference here Sunday, Dr Kirmani asked the AJK premier to step down from office for his failure to protect the life and property of the people. He said the AJK government had completely failed to deliver while corruption is rampant in all state departments.
Secretary General of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) AJK Shah Ghulam Qadir and other party office-bearers were also present. Referring to a clash between the workers of the PML-N and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), he said it was a condemnable incident which had taken a precious life. He alleged that the AJK prime minister was in Nakyal and giving directions to his party activists during their clash with the PML-N workers. The incident, he said, showed the ulterior motives of Chaudhry Abdul Majeed. He said the AJK premier distorted the facts and conveyed the wrong information to the PPP leadership.
Dr Kirmani said the central leaders of the PPP had better depute some ‘sane person’ to get correct information about the incident. He said the participants of the PPP youth rally while passing through Nikyal Bazaar first chanted ‘indecent and vulgar’ slogans against the PML-N leadership and then started attacking shops and business outlets belonging to the PML-N workers. He said the PML-N workers then reacted in self-defence and a clash broke out resulting in a loss of a precious life, which was highly regrettable and condemnable.
Dr Kirmani alleged that the AJK police also abetted the attackers. He said a crackdown was launched against PML-N workers and their houses were raided by the police who also harassed their women and children. The AJK police, he regretted, did not even register a first information report (FIR) on the complaint of the PML-N workers who were either injured or their shops and property was damaged. He condemned the FIR registered against the PML-N workers.
The special assistant said the son of PML-N leader Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan was nominated in a fake FIR though he was not present at the venue at that time. He held the AJK prime minister fully responsible for the ugly incident. He said the AJK premier made a provocative speech which was carried by a section of the media last month where he threatened that the dead bodies of federal ministers would be sent back if they came to his area and if the federal government imposed its decisions in AJK.
He said the PML-N workers, on the other hand, were peaceful as evident from the peaceful holding of all their conventions. Dr Kirmani was in-charge of the conventions. He said that all the political parties should evolve a code of conduct to avoid giving negative statements and raising abusive slogans for peaceful conduct of polls in AJK. He said that the AJK prime minister is even refusing to accept the judicial commission which had been constituted by his own government to probe the Nakyal incident. “Chaudhry Abdul Majeed should wait for the report of the commission, which will bring all the facts about the incident before the people,” he added.
Dr Kirmani said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had directed all the party workers to remain peaceful for the holding of transparent elections in AJK. He called upon the PML-N workers to exercise restraint and remain peaceful. “They should collect videos and clippings of media reports regarding the incident and present the same before the judicial commission for bringing facts to light,” he added. To a question regarding a no-confidence motion against Chaudhry Abdul Majeed, he said the prime minister wanted the continuation of the democratic system in the state and that was the reason that no such step was taken. He said that Kashmiris are brothers of all Pakistanis and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had highlighted their cause at all international forums.
