Prime Minister Imran Khan has been accused by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Vice President Maryam Nawaz of buying votes for the upcoming Azad Jammu and Kashmir elections, it emerged on Friday.
Maryam, while addressing a rally in Pattaka, AJK, said PM Imran was now again talking about approaching the International Monetary Fund (IMF). She claimed that while the premier did not have the resources to provide people with food supplies, it appeared that he “has enough resources and money to buy votes in the AJK elections”.
She asked people to catch those that would interfere in the AJK elections the same way the people had stepped up and ensured democracy in the Daska by-election.
She took another shot at the government by pointing out the increase in power outages, with some areas experiencing up to 12-hour load shedding, to which she also claimed that former premier Nawaz Sharif had contained the issue with his effective policies.
“Perhaps this is the first summer when Pakistan is witnessing gas load shedding. The selectors who are now supporting Imran were against Nawaz Sharif when he was taking measures to provide relief to the masses,” alleged Maryam Nawaz.
She also rebuked the premier for “letting people suffer during the last Ramadan just to get a 1kg sack of sugar.” She insisted the PML-N would not allow the “sun of selection” to rise in Kashmir.
She claimed that a concert had been underway at the Foreign Office on July 8 — the day when the country was observing the fifth death anniversary of Burhan Wani, Hizbul Mujahideen leader and a revered figure in Indian-occupied Kashmir.
Moving on the Kashmir issue, she said Imran Khan was changing the names of roads, observing mourning once a week to fight the case of Kashmir under his “foreign policy”.
She said that PM Imran had claimed Trump would mediate in the Kashmir issue, “but how we let Kashmir go is all that we have now.”
The PML-N VP continued to slam the prime minister and said merely asking people to observe “two-minute silence” in solidarity with Kashmiris, alleging “this is all that has been doing for the cause of Kashmir”.
Asserting that a man who only has a cricket background could not understand foreign policy, she asserted that “He keeps on ruthlessly hitting the people of Pakistan with the same bat that he would use in the ground”.
Accusing the prime minister of “giving away” Kashmir to India, she claimed measures were afoot to bifurcate Azad Jammu and Kashmir as well.
Earlier, she thanked the people of Pattaka for turning up in large numbers at the PML-N rally.
She insisted that the PML-N was still a popular political party in the AJK. “You can suppress the voice of Nawaz Sharif, you can declare him absconder… but the people of AJK still admire him,” she added.
As many as 32 political and religious parties are vying in the polls — prominent among them PML-N, PPP and PTI — for the 45 direct seats of the assembly, 33 of which are located in AJK territory and 12 in Pakistan.
On the other hand, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib said PML-N leader Maryam is trying to deceive the people of Azad Kashmir by claiming herself a Kashmiri.
Addressing a news conference in Islamabad, Farrukh said the people of AJK will reject PML-N in upcoming elections. He said Prime Minister Imran has proved himself a true ambassador of Kashmir.
The minister said the prime minister raised the voice of Kashmiris at all international forums including the United Nations and OIC adding that Imran Khan has exposed the real face of India in front of the world.
He said Pakistan will continue to support the Kashmir cause at any cost.
PM URGED TO ENSURE MINISTERS’ COMPLIANCE WITH CODE OF CONDUCT:
Meanwhile, AJK Chief Election Commissioner, retired Justice Abdul Rashid Sulehria, has written a letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan requesting him to ensure that ministers observe the code of conduct set for the July 25 elections to the AJK Legislative Assembly.
The development comes after a video began circulating on social media which shows Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit Baltistan Ali Amin Gandapur handing over a thick bundle of cash to some supporters in AJK’s LA-1 Mirpur 1 constituency where he had gone to campaign this week.
Some people had gathered around Gandapur to complain to him of a badly damaged road. They told him that they are looking to repair it with whatever meagre funds they can scrounge up on their own. At this, the minister immediately handed them a donation of Rs500,000, which was recorded on video.
Gandapur also said that he is ready to provide further financial assistance and promised the people that the next time he visits the area, the road would have been repaired.
