Ahsan Warns Of Dire Consequences If AJK Polls Rigged
PMLN Secretary General Ahsan Iqbal has warned of serious consequences if the sinister strategy of election engineering, pre and post poll rigging used I General Elections and Gilgit-Baltistan Elections were employed in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir polls.
Talking to media in Chak-Shehzad, flanked by Khurram Dastgir Khan, Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, Hafiz Hafeez-ur-Rehman, Marriyum Aurangzeb and other PMLN leaders, Ahsan said that the entire country is reaping the fruits of the selected government imposed through undemocratic means. But, he said, no lessons were learnt from this disastrous experiment and the same playbook was used to rig the Gilgit-Baltistan elections which had created the much feared political instability in the GB.
Ahsan said he repeatedly warned that GB was an strategically and politically an extremely sensitive region and it was absolutely crucial that free and fare elections be held that are truly representative of the people’s will. He said it was imperative that there was no feeling of disenfranchisement among the people of Gilgit-Baltistan because that would cost dearly to Pakistan’s strategic interests especially because it is the route of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor.
But Ahsan said every code of conduct marked by the Election Commission was violated; the Prime Minister went there against the law; so did his ministers; electables were once again coerced to leave their parties; the polling practices were questionable. Yet, even after that the PTI could not even get simple majority and had to beg Independents to join them to make the government. The long term results of this could be devastating for Pakistan, he said.
However, the PMLN Secretary General pledged that if the same tricks were used in the AJK elections there would be Dore consequences which only the rigging perpetrators would be responsible for. He said the PMLN workers will guard the sanctity of the vote like lions at all poling stations and will not let the mandate of the people get robbed ever again. He said PMLN has already started preparing its force for the next General Elections to prevent all actions that undermine the election and deprive the people from electing the representatives of their choice.
