Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf has said the federal government is doing pre-poll rigging ahead of general elections in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).

Talking to the media at People’s Media House here on Monday, Ashraf said the governments of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi were committing atrocities in Kashmir under a plan.

PPP leaders Sardar Latif Khosa, Senator Farhatullah Babar and Senator Saeed Ghani flanked Ashraf on this occasion.

Ashraf said the people of Kashmir were angry at Sharif because he invited Modi to Lahore and served him dozens of dishes. He said that Kashmiris would not forgive Sharif. He said the AJK prime minister had directed the chief secretary to form a committee to investigate the clashes between the PPP and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) workers during an election campaign in the Haveli District of the state. Being a representative of the federal government, he said, the chief secretary was preventing a free and fair investigation into the incident in which at least five people were killed.

The former prime minister said the PML-N was trying to flee from the elections in AJK that were going to be held on July 21. He said it seemed the federal government wanted to postpone the elections due to the fear of defeat.

He said the PPP wanted the elections in AJK to be held in a good atmosphere, but the federal government had appointed some federal ministers to sabotage this atmosphere.

“Some federal ministers used uncivilised language against key office-bearers of the AJK government. The PML-N is trying to mess up from the day when people of Azad Kashmir warmly welcomed Bilawal Bhutto Zardari,” he said.

Ashraf said the PPP had photographs showing “hooligans” of the PML-N firing shots during the clashes in the Haveli District. He said that Senator Ghani was addressing a public rally at Haveli when PML-N hooligans reached there, opened fire and attacked PPP workers with clubs. He said that a number of people were killed and several wounded in the incident. He said the PPP lodged an FIR about the killing of its five workers in Chiri Kot, but the AJK chief secretary and the police chief were putting hurdles in the way of the investigation. He said the federal government was depriving Kashmiri people of the right to vote and federal ministers were threatening the AJK chief secretary and other officials.