Prime Minister Imran Khan approached the talk of “rigging” in the upcoming Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly election through a unique cricket metaphor on Friday, wherein he highlighted the playing tactics of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz supremo Nawaz Sharif.
PM Imran said when he used to play cricket, it was standard practice for countries to have their own umpires, and teams that were fearful of losing against a powerful team, would preemptively raise a hue and cry about losing the match due to the other country’s umpire officiating.
“The Noon League, which I truly believe has never done a single thing with honesty, have begun talk of rigging already,” he said.
“The government is yours, the staff is yours, the Election Commission is comprised of people of your own choosing, and it is we who will do elections?” he asked the party.
Sharing an anecdote from when he used to play cricket at Lahore’s Gymkhana Club, he said that one day he and his friends noticed a “plump man, seemingly very enthused about playing cricket” visit the club.
“That man was Nawaz Sharif,” the prime minister said.
PM Imran Khan said “everything he will go on to say from that point is true”, adding that people who used to play at the club in those days, will back him.
The premier said that Nawaz’s cricket “was about as good as his politics”.
“But then he became a finance minister. When he would come to play a match, he would bring his own umpires to the ground: one a deputy commissioner, one a commissioner. Whenever he was out, they would declare it as a no-ball. Since then, the Noon League has fallen into this bad habit. For them, good umpiring is only when it is their own man,” PM Imran Khan said.
The premier said that in 200 years of Test Cricket history, it was Pakistan that brought neutral umpires and the man who was captain at the time “is standing right before you all”.
PM Imran also said that the government for one year has been asking the opposition to work with the government on electoral reforms “but no one ever comes”.
“We recommended electronic voting machines. What happens is that right after the election ends, the result is out with the press of a button.
“You don’t have to worry about going through boxes of votes, neither is there any fear of the boxes being stolen and nor of double-stamping. This is the marvel of technology. The result is instantaneous,” the premier said.
He said the Opposition “refused to listen and is now crying rigging”.
PM Imran Khan furthermore disregarded the talk of him “wishing to turn Azad Jammu and Kashmir” into a new province of Pakistan, saying that it was rubbish.
“I do not know where all this talk has sprung from,” he said, dismissing any notion of such an idea, as he addressed an election campaign rally in Tarar Khal.
“But what I want to make clear now, is that in 1948, there were two United Nations Security Council resolutions which granted the people of Kashmir the right to decide their own future. According to the UN resolution, the people had to decide whether they want to join Hindustan or Pakistan.
“I want to clarify to all of you today. InshaAllah, a day will come, when all the sacrifices made by the people of Kashmir, will not be wasted. God will grant you that right. There will be a referendum, InshaAllah.
He expressed the confidence that the people on that day will choose to live with Pakistan.
The premier went on to state that after the UN-mandated referendum, his government will hold another referendum, where the people of Kashmir will be given the choice to either live with Pakistan or become an independent state.
PM Imran Khan said the freedom struggle of Kashmiris’ pre-dates partition and began more than 100 years ago when the people stood up time and again against the Dogra government.
The Dogra family was a dynasty of Hindu Rajputs who ruled Jammu & Kashmir from 1846 to 1947.
Separately, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Khawaja Saad Rafique said on Friday that elections to be held in Azad Jammu and Kashmir on July 25th would swing in the favour of his party, provided the election commission succeeded in stopping the federal government from intervening.
Talking to the media outside an accountability court in Lahore, Saad said that the public gatherings addressed by Prime Minister Imran Khan in AJK were ‘flop’. “This ‘selective’ accountability will not continue for long. It was high time people woke up from their slumber now,” he stressed.
He was of the view that the people of Kashmir knew fully well who deserved their votes since they were politically enlightened.
Saad regretted that an accountability court in Islamabad had been built at the site of federal lodges. “What was the point in snatching that place from the MNAs where they would pay for their stay?” he queried.
Clarifying that he had a lot of respect for the judiciary, the PML-N leader opined that it would have been better if an alternate piece of land had been found for the court.
Over 3.02 million registered voters, both male and female, in all 33 constituencies of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, including 12 constituencies meant for Pakistan-based J&K refugees, would exercise their right of franchise to elect the 53-seat AJK Legislative Assembly on Sunday.
Talking to APP, an official of AJK Election Commission Arshad Hussain Khawaja told that polling will start at 8:00 am in the morning and will continue till 5:00 pm without any pause.
The registered voters shall have to produce an original computerized national identity card at the polling station at the time of exercising the right to vote.
The Pak Army, civil armed forces with the coordination of the local law-enforcement agencies including AJK police, Punjab constabulary, KP and Frontier Constabulary have started reaching at all 45 constituencies to assist civil administration for maintaining law and order and holding of the polls in an absolutely free, fair, peaceful and transparent manner.
The polling staff is all set to move for the respective polling stations of their duties set up across AJK and in the constituencies of refugees dwelling in all four provinces of Pakistan, the official said.
The AJK Election Commission has set up a control room to receive the results of the election from all the district returning officers soon after the polling.
Police have released a fool-proof security plan, said SSP Raja Irfan Salim.
He said that polling stations have been set up by the AJK Election Commission in all four constituencies of Mirpur district comprising Dadayal, Chakswari, Mirpur city and Khari Shareef to facilitate over 2.40 lakh registered voters in the district.
with additional input from APP
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