JAMMU: Jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party, the Pakistan Tehreek Insaf (PTI), has rejected the recent elections in Pakistan-Occupied Jammu Kashmir (POJK). On July 29, it termed the entire electoral process “a fraud”, and condemned the violence in the region, which it said was sending the wrong message internationally due to gross human rights violations.
Addressing a news conference alongside PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, former POJK Prime Minister Sardar Qayyum Niazi said Kashmiris were being subjected to unprecedented oppression and brutality. “Kashmiris are being crushed in a manner for which there is no precedent,” he said, a report in The Express Tribune said.
He said the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) protesters had made every effort to reach an agreement. However, when they realised that their demands were no longer being heard, they announced a protest for June 9.
“They are peaceful people and remain peaceful even today. Tell me, was any member of our forces killed by gunfire or struck with a baton there? These people are taking bullets, yet they continue to stand peacefully,” he said.
Questioning the decision to hold the elections in three phases, Niazi said POJK had a population of only 3.5 to 4 million. “Pakistan has a population of 250 million and holds elections in a single phase. What is the need for three phases here? What kind of design is being implemented in Kashmir?” he asked.
He was referring to the February 2024 national elections across Pakistan when voting for the provincial assemblies and the National Assembly were held in one go. These elections were heavily rigged in favour of Pakistan Muslim League (PML)-N whose chief Nawaz Sharif was allowed to return to Pakistan from London and lead the campaign.
Meanwhile, Barrister Gohar criticised the recent electoral process and alleged that the July 27 elections were “a fraud” on the people of the region. “The elections held on the 27th were witnessed by all of you. In the name of elections, it was a fraud. Everyone will now have to accept that using bullets and batons, suppressing the people, silencing them and stopping them from protesting is not the solution to problems. Listening to the people is democracy,” he said.
Condemning the recent situation in PoJK, Gohar also criticised the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the PML-N for politicising the issue. “We openly state that there were dead bodies lying there, people were covered in blood, and political parties played politics over it. One congratulated the other, while the other complained that the elections had been rigged against it,” he said.
In this manner, the two parties had remained in power under the existing system for the past 40 years and had lost in their respective provinces, the PTI leader asserted. He said the low voter turnout in the election itself reflected the rejection of both these parties.
“Such a low turnout reflects a vote of no confidence in the entire system and in these two parties. It is a referendum against them,” Gohar said.
Describing the prevailing politics as being driven solely by personal interests, he said.
Meanwhile, the PML-N and PPP traded barbs on the results of the Mirpur division results. PPP chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that the PML-N had stolen the mandate through rigging all over, using intimidation and political bribery as cornerstones of its fake victory.
PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari made stinging comments about lack of legitimacy of the PML-N. He also reiterated his allegations regarding widespread rigging in the first phase of POJK polls and demanded re-polling.
Addressing a PPP workers’ convention in Muzaffarabad on July 29, he called on the Election Commission to hold re-polling in Mirpur if “you are not involved in this rigging”. This is by far the most serious and direct challenge to so-called impartiality of the commission
PM Shehbaz, Punjab CM products of charity, not performance
Directly taking a jibe at Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, Bilawal said: “If someone is sitting on the PM’s seat, or someone is sitting on the CM’s position today, even a child knows that it is not because of the people’s votes or your performance but because of Form-47.”
Form-47 is the provisional consolidated statement of results of the vote count of all polling stations in a constituency, prepared by the returning officer (RO) concerned. The term has also been used mainly by the opposition PTI since the 2024 general elections in the country to allege rigging in the polls.
The insinuation and implication is that the PML-N had lost in several constituencies, both in the Punjab province and the National Assembly, but Returning Officers falsely declared it to be a winner. This rigging, facilitated by the security forces, had led to the installation of Shehbaz Sharif as PM and Maryam Nawaz as CM in the Punjab province, Bilawal said.
Till date, this is most direct attack on the security forces launched by Bilawal who had claimed in the run-up to the February 2024 elections that his party will form the government at the Federal level because of the wide support it enjoyed across the nation. Imran Khan’s PTI has led in making similar charges that it was wrongly deprived of the mandate both in provincial assemblies and the National Assembly by not allowing it to contest under its official symbol of a cricket bat.
Bilawal’s allegations on Wednesday were in continuation of his party’s accusations from the day before, when the PPP and the PML-N traded barbs over election results, with Maryam saying in a televised address that it was “not the state that decides election results, but the people”. She also urged the PPP to accept defeat.
Shortly before Bilawal’s speech on Wednesday, she, too, took a jibe at the PPP on X, saying: “The PPP, which is the master of the fine art of rigging, is crying foul. When’s the doomsday?”
Responding to her on X, PPP’s Sharjeel Memon said, “This is not you speaking but Form-47. Doomsday came in 2024, when mandates were being distributed in charity.”
For his part, Bilawal assailed the PML-N, claiming that the party was a “product of rigging”.
PML-N termed as a product of rigging
Drawing a contrast with his own party, Bilawal said that the PPP’s track record “dated back three generations”. He went on to claim that “there has not been a single election where the PML-N has won through the people’s vote […], but always due to rigging”.
“Do they think we will allow them to rig the elections in Kashmir?” Bilawal asked rhetorically. “The Kashmiri people will not bow down and let anyone steal their mandate,” he added.
“This is Muzaffarabad, not Srinagar,” the PPP chairman said, vowing that his party would ensure that the opposing side’s “rigging attempts go in vain”.
He further claimed that the voter turnout at the 30 polling stations was 90 per cent while in most constituencies the turnout was hardly 40-50pc.
The PPP chairman promised his party’sworkers that he will “take back every single stolen vote”.
He said he was ready to accept defeat but added that “if you are going to steal our mandate by rigging the election, then I cannot accept these results”.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission proposed
Bilawal also reiterated PPP’s recommendation regarding the formation of a truth and reconciliation commission to address the ongoing unrest in AJK.
“I am not presenting this proposal on behalf of the state or the protesters, but on behalf of every Kashmiri who does not belong to either.”
He called on both sides — the government and the now proscribed Joint Awami Action Committee — to accept the demand. “If you walk the righteous path and if you are on the side of the truth, then why are you not forming the commission?” he asked.
Bilawal further stated that when PPP spoke of employment in the region, it did so because the leadership was cognisant of the “economic crisis” in Kashmir. He then again took a jibe at PML-N, whose economic philosophy, Bilawal claimed, was guided by the principle that “the rich should get richer”.
“They taunt us and tell us that we want to turn Kashmir into Sindh. No, I want Kashmir to stay Kashmir and let the people decide its fate,” Bilawal said, adding
“Punjab, Islamabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh or Balochistan cannot decide Kashmir’s future.”
Speaking about the role of the Election Commission, the PPP leader likened its role to that of Punjab’s Crime Control Department.
