General elections for Azad Jammu and Kashmir, that were supposed to be held a month back, are finally scheduled to be held in the coming days but the PTI government wants to delay them for an additional two months. A letter from the NCOC has been issued in this regard citing ‘rising number of Covid-19 cases in the country’ as the reason. Going by this rationale, all the by-elections that have been held in the past few months in various constituencies should not have taken place; especially considering how at that point the deadly third Covid-19 wave was gathering steam. The real motivation behind the postponement therefore seems to be something purely political in nature.
The PTI’s leadership has reportedly been informed that with its current level of preparedness and organization in AJK, the party is unlikely to perform well in the elections and needs more time. In order to improve its chances of winning, the PTI has resorted to approaching more electable candidates to award party tickets, even if that means ‘persuading’ members of other parties to join its ranks. This practice was extensively and successfully employed in the 2018 general elections and it delivered Punjab to the PTI. Prime Minister Azad Kashmir Raja Farooq Haider Khan has rightly hit out at Prime Minister Imran Khan for being part of this effort, stating that it would be fine if he were just his party’s chairman, but openly poaching candidates of other parties as PM of the country is not a done thing.
As elections approach, the narrative on India has also switched back to ‘no talks without a resolution on India Occupied Kashmir’. Just a few months back, the PTI government had announced opening trade with India and it was only after severe criticism over this policy shift started emanating from within the federal cabinet in addition to opposition parties and public in general through the media, that the decision was taken back. It is unfortunate that the Kashmir cause is being played around with through petty politics. The upcoming elections should go ahead as per schedule and all parties should contest them in a fair and transparent manner.
