Failure to Get Majority in GB Shameful Defeat for State Power, Coercion, Election Engineering – Maryam Nawaz
PMLN Vice President Maryam Nawaz has said the Gilgit-Baltistan election result are a shameful defeat for the entire state power, government institutions, government machinery to change allegiances by force and coercive tactics and not get even a simple majority despite the worst fraud.
In a series of tweets Maryam said even those who lost the elections got double the seats than the turncoat-party which is statement of the people’s distrust in the puppet government of PTI.
Maryam said despite failing to get a simple majority like Punjab and the federation, the government will be formed by providing crutches, but PTI must see its distorted and rejected face in the mirror that the people of Gilgit-Baltistan have shown it. She said, the PTI did not exist before or now in Gilgit-Baltistan. The few seats it got were due to bullying, rigging, defeated candidates and selectors from PML-N. She said this defeat tells the story of the days to come.
The PMLN Vice President praised the brave people of GB and told them not to be discouraged by this fraud. She said this feeble house of cards was about to fall and the game of the puppet and their puppeteer was coming to an end by the graceof God Almighty.
Meanwhile PMLN Secretary Information Ahasan Iqbal while rejecting the results of the election has said that the organized rigging in the Gilgit-Baltistan has endorsed Nawaz Sharif’s narrative that neither the people of Pakistan are free nor is their vote free or respected.
At a press conference in Gilgit-Baltistan along with PMLN GB Head Hafiz Hafeez-ur-Rehman, said that PMLN will hold a protest rally against the systematic rigging and violation of all election codes and rules from the PMLN Secretariat in GB to the Election Commission office.
Ahsan said that the government had made its intentions clear right from the start when it choked all development of the PMLN government in GB months ahead of the election and then installed a unilateral interim government without consultation with the political parties against election rules. He said from that moment on the interim set-up set out to pave the way for government by using government machinery, using bait and, or coercion whatever was necessary to influence the election. He said the elections were delayed by 2 months only because PTI did not have a single candidate in the entire GB. These two months, he said, were used for political engineering where the most undemocratic and globally scorned upon practice of horse-trading was used to break away 6 of PMLN electables.
The former Federal Interior Minister said not only did Imran Niazi flout election code of conduct but he backstabbed national consensus built in a meeting in Islamabad attended by all political parties of Pakistan and Azad Kashmir in the presence of the country’s military leadership, General Qamar Javed Bajwa and General Faiz Hameed. He said it was agreed in the meeting that the matter of declaring Gilgit-Baltistan a province of Pakistan will be done after the elections with everyone onboard to send a message of unity and strength. But, he said Niazi jumped the gun, held a public meeting in violation of Election Commission’s code of conduct and declared GB a provisional province. This he said has now created a crisis because the government and people of Azad Jammu and Kashmir have voiced their displeasure over this move.
Ahsan said the selected Prime Minister and his federal ministers continued to hold public meetings in violation of election rules and promised over Rs 200 billion worth of projects to GB which they too know they don’t have the capacity to deliver. The used and abused state machinery and power in the worst way imaginable to coerce and buy votes and candidates to rig the elections, he said.
But despite all this, the PTI could not get even a simple majority in the elections. He pointed out that the independent candidates who won the lections won them by defeating PTI candidates, he said. If they were to join PTI, it would be a sell-out of the will of the people and the decision of their vote, he said. He said the respected institutions of Pakistan will need to rethink and reevaluate the situation as well. The experiment in the 2018 General Elections has failed miserably and has weakened Pakistan and its economy to devastating proportions. This, he said will lead to Pakistan’s defence budget being hit as well which could weaken the country’s defence.
Ahsan said the people of Gilgit-Baltistan, but not giving PTI a majority despite such orchestrated rigging, have proven that they stand by the narrative and ideology of respect and sanctity of vote. After this mandate-robbing in GB the people of GB have now become a part of the movement to reclaim the true power, respect and sanctity of the vote, he said.
Earlier, talking to media in Islamabad, former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said that the rigging in GB was a dangerous game to be played with strategic interests of the country at stake. He said truthful representation of the people of Gilgit-Baltistan was of pivotal importance and by denying that right to the people of the region, the elected and imposed government has jeopardized it all.
Abbasi said the entire country and its people were already seen the fruits of such engineered elections which landed the country in multiple crisis.
