Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif reacts to the AJK election results in a televised address on Tuesday. SCREEN CAPTURE
Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz on Tuesday hailed Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s victory in the first phase of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly elections and criticized the Pakistan People’s Party for alleging fraud, urging it to accept the result instead of blaming her party.
The PML-N emerged as the dominant party in the first phase of the AJK Legislative Assembly elections, winning nine of the 13 contested seats in Mirpur Division, according to unofficial and unconfirmed results, while the PPP won the remaining four seats.
Reacting to the results in a televised address, the Punjab chief minister said the PPP’s response was disappointing, adding that instead of accepting its defeat in a democratic spirit, the party had resorted to issuing statements and expressing anger.
Read: PML-N secures strong lead in AJK polls, wins 9 of 13 seats in Mirpur as unofficial results come in
“Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has just issued a statement saying that the State has decided that the PML-N will win. Bilawal Sahab, I want to explain to you that it is not the State that decides the elections; it is the people who decide the elections,” he said.
The prime minister also referred to the Gilgit-Baltistan elections, where the PPP won the majority of seats, and said the PML-N had accepted those results and supported the formation of the PPP government.
“In Gilgit-Baltistan, the people decided in his favour. The PML-N wholeheartedly and happily acknowledged his victory. The prime minister congratulated him and supported him in forming the government,” the prime minister said, adding that when the PPP won the elections in Gilgit-Baltistan, there were no allegations of fraud, but when it was badly defeated in the AJK elections, he accused the elections of being rigged.
Referring to the PPP’s election rallies, he said they were all empty, although that was not necessarily a symbol of success, adding that the party should have worked on its narrative and performance.
“There was no narrative, no program for the people of AJK, no reform agenda for AJK, no performance to show, no record of governance,” he added.
Referring to the PPP government, which has ruled Sindh for over 17 years, he said that the continuity that the PPP had enjoyed in the province had not been available to any other party in any other province, but despite that, the party did not have a single project in Sindh to highlight.
