Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Azad Kashmir while welcoming the supreme court’s directions regarding holding of local body elections in October has said that the PTI was ready to hold the local government polls as per the apex court’s directions.
In a statement issued here on Wednesday, the PTI’s Information Secretary Ershad Mahmud said, “The PTI is not only ready to participate in the local body elections but will also kick start the election campaign soon all across the liberated territory”.
Referring to PTI’s growing popularity all across Pakistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir the PTI leader expressed the optimism that the PTI would make a clean sweep in Azad Kashmir the way it did in the recent by-polls held in Punjab.
He said that the people of Azad Kashmir would repose their trust and confidence in the leadership of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf to bring real change in the region.
The PTI, he said, would give full representation to the youth and women in the upcoming LG polls. Terming the local government system as the foundation of democracy, he said, “It is the nursery where politicians are nourished”. The PTI Information Secretary said that the LG Polls in Azad Kashmir were being held after a hiatus of over three decades.
“The credit for restoring the local government system in Azad Kashmir goes to PTI”, he said adding that the PPP, Muslim Conference and PML-N had promised the people that they would transfer power and authority to the grassroots level by holding local elections, but they have miserably failed in fulfilling the promises despite ruling the region over and over again.
He said that the PTI Chairman Imran Khan wanted to empower common citizens by bringing them into mainstream politics. Underling the importance of local government system, he said, that it was best way to transfer power from upper to grassroots level.
The LG system, he said, was an inclusive system whereby people could be made part of the decision-making process and proposing development plans at local level. ““At the village level, people make their own decisions and propose development plans and allocate resources for their implementation”, Mahumud said adding that the party (PTI) under the leadership of Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas would soon organize consultative meetings all across the state to take workers on board regarding the finalizing of candidates.
He said that local elections would also be instrumental in developing true democratic thinking in the region. Reiterating his party’s commitment to hold a free and fair elections, Ershad Mahmud said that the incumbent government would fully cooperate with the Election Commission to conduct clean and transparent elections in the region.
