ISLAMABAD: Fissures have emerged in the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leadership as party leader Nawaz Sharif, President Shahbaz Sharif and Azad Jammu and Kashmir Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider have divergent views over the party’s decision to protest over alleged rigging in the AJK polls.
It may be recalled that the PML-N has rejected the results of Azad Kashmir elections and vowed to launch a global campaign over the alleged claims of rigging and the party leaders said that the Kashmiri people would not accept the idea of forming a province with a ‘dummy prime minister’.
Sources in the PML-N have told Pakistan Today that Nawaz Sharif had held Maryam Nawaz, Raja Farooq Haider and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi responsible for the party’s poor show in the AJK polls. However, when the trio informed Nawaz Sharif that massive rigging had taken place in the polls, Sharif directed them to address a press conference and take the people into confidence and also hold a sit-in outside the National Assembly building in federal capital against the alleged rigging.
The source said that Raja Farooq Haider had opposed the sit-in but he addressed a presser and took the media into confidence over the alleged rigging in the polls.
However, the source added that Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif had opposed a sit-in outside the NA and rather has demanded concrete evidence of election fraud from AJK Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider.
According to the source, on the issue of PML-N’s defeat in the Azad Kashmir elections, Shehbaz has also questioned how the administration could rig the polls while party’s prime minister had been there and also the election commission and the other officials were appointed by the prime minister.
The sources said that Shehbaz Sharif believes that running a campaign against AJK polls would send a very negative signal to the world and it would bring bad name to the Kashmir cause. Moreover, the sources said that Shehbaz Sharif fears that this narrative may further antagonize the military establishment whom he had won over after hectic efforts and has secured a safe passage for Nawaz Sharif.
“It would be a red line to cross,” Shehbaz Sharif had told Nawaz Sharif, the sources said.
The source also said that the PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif and Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif had a telephonic conversation, in which the reasons for the party’s defeat in the Azad Kashmir elections were discussed, including the party policy and statements including the rigging allegations. The sources said that an important meeting of the party is also to be convened soon which would be chaired by Shehbaz Sharif.
It may be recalled that the PML-N has announced to launch a movement at the national and international level by rejecting the results of the Azad Kashmir elections. The PML-N Senior Vice President Shahid Khaqan Abbasi alleged that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf won elections with money and vote fraud which, they added, is an attack on Kashmir’s political traditions.
Abbasi said that the rigging had started before the election and not on the day of the polls. He alleged that the opposition candidates were blocked and asked to change their loyalties. He said that despite pressure and luring, the PML-N candidates stood firm and did not fall to temptations.
Former spokesman of Nawaz Sharif Muhammad Zubair admitted the fact that Shehbaz Sharif himself did not level allegations of rigging in Azad Kashmir but also did not stop anyone from making the allegations.
He said that after such massive rigging in the Azad Kashmir elections, Shehbaz Sharif cannot sit in Lahore and say that the party has not reacted. He added that some details regarding rigging in Azad Kashmir have been shared with Shehbaz Sharif and more information will be shared with him in the next few days.
