The ruling coalition partners, the PPP and the PML-Q, Wednesday agreed on seat adjustments for the upcoming general election in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, deciding that both the parties would support PPP candidates in Sialkot, Gujranwala and Narowal while a PML-Q-backed candidate would be supported in Mandi Bahauddin.
A source told Pakistan Today that the agreement was reached at a meeting between stalwarts from both the parties. The PPP team was led by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani while Senior Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi headed the PML-Q team. The meeting also decided that soon Prime Minister Gilani and Pervaiz Elahi would address a big public gathering in Narowal to show the strength of the PPP-PML alliance for the AJK polls.
During the meeting, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani urged all the democratic parties to ensure free and fair elections in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
He asked Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan Manzoor Wattoo to take every possible measure for maintaining complete transparency of the elections. He also underlined the need of political decency and tolerance by all the political parties.
It was an extraordinary meeting of the two parties for the first time under the prime minister’s chairmanship. It was observed that this meeting would bring a paradigm shift in the politics of AJK.
Senior Minister and Minister for Defence Production Ch Pervaiz Elahi said his party would back the PPP candidates and stressed the need to work out a joint strategy to win the elections with a big margin.
The prime minister set up a four-member committee comprising Ch Pervaiz Elahi; Ch Wajahat Hussain; Mian Manzoor Wattoo; and Raja Pervez Ashraf to work out a joint strategy for the AJK elections.
The meeting was attended by Ch Pervaiz Elahi and Ch Wajahat Hussain while PPP was represented by Manzoor Wattoo, Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Khurshid Shah, Qamar Zaman Kaira MNA, Raja Pervez Ashraf MNA, Nazar Muhammad Gondal MNA, Tariq Tarar MNA, Nadeem Afzal Chan MNA, Imtiaz Safdar Warraich MNA and Samina Mushtaq Paganwala MNA.