Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Sunday accused the PML-N of rigging the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly polls in Lahore and claimed that the party’s provincial general-secretary Samiullah Khan and activists, Afzal Butt and Khalid Usman, were injured by the PML-N hooligans.
Addressing a press conference at the Lahore Press Club, PPP General Secretary Jahangir Badr alleged that the supporters of PML-N candidate for LA 37 Ghulam Sarwar Mir tried to cast fake votes while the polling camps of PPP were evicted as the party workers resisted the move. The PPP leaders demanded registration of a criminal case against the PML-N activists who were involved in rigging, attacking their party workers and making the election staff hostage the staff.
Badr said the PML-N goons had made the polling stations no-go areas for the PPP voters as they blocked all entrances to the polling booths. He further said the PML-N supporters had also filled four ballot boxes prior to the start of the polling in the area. He said the PML-N had lost its credibility due to its politics of rigging despite the fact that the party leader, Nawaz Sharif, made claims of the strengthening democracy in the country. Raja Riaz said that the PML-N had also tortured the PPP workers at the Qila Lachhman Singh polling station.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Rehman Malik and Minister for Information Firdous Ashiq Awan said the Punjab government stopped the Rangers from entering into the polling stations despite the fact that the AJK chief election commissioner (CEC) had ordered their deployment. Taking to media men at a polling station in Sector G-6 of Islamabad, Rehman urged the CEC to take notice of the Punjab government’s blatant defiance.
Meanwhile, Deputy Opposition Leader in the Punjab Assembly Shaukat Basra has blamed Hamza Shahbaz of organising violence on the polling day. PPP leader Napolean Qayyum also criticised the PML-N leadership of resorting to violence to manipulate the results of the elections in its favour.
PML-N claims otherwise
LAHORE – The PML-N accused the PPP of rigging the Azad Kashmir polls on Sunday and warned the government of dire consequences if it tried to change the results. Addressing a press conference held in Model Town, Khwaja Saad Rafique, Hamza Shahbaz and Zaeem Husain Qadri said the used state force to manipulate the elections. Saad blamed election commission of postponing elections in four constituencies at eleventh hour on alleged involvement of the President’s House.
“Just 36 hours before polling, elections were postponed in LA-30, LA-36 and LA-41,” he said, adding that the PPP leaders were using Punjab Governor Latif Khosa. “The Governor’s House has become a hub of the PPP’s poll-rigging operations,” he lamented. Staff Report