Despite attaining a simple majority in the AJK Legislative Assembly elections held on Sunday, the Pakistan People’s Party AJK and the Muslim Conference will form a coalition government.
Addressing a press conference at the Kashmir Council, Minister for Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir Affairs Manzoor Wattoo said on Monday the PPP was going to form a broad-based coalition government with the support of Muslim Conference and two independent members. He rejected allegations that the PPP had rigged the AJK elections. “Since the Muslim Conference was in power in AJK and the PML-N in Punjab, there is no question of rigging by the PPP. The polls were held in a free, fair and a transparent manner,” he claimed.
To a question regarding people’s ‘surprise’ trust on the PPP, he said the government was well aware of people’s problems and would redress them on priority basis. He pointed out that the PML-N secured only three seats of the 29 in AJK while it bagged five refugees’ seats of the nine in Punjab, which showed that the PML-N had rigged the polls by using state machinery.
Meanwhile, a private TV channel reported that in an attempt to invite the Muslim Conference to form a broad-based government, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani contacted AJK Prime Minister Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan, the chief of the Muslim Conference.
Candidates for the premiership of AJK include PPP AJK President Chaudhry Majeed, former AJK prime minister Barrister Sultan Mehmood, PPP AJK Secretary General Chaudhry Latif Akbar and Chaudhry Yasin. According to Online sources the government wants to bring Majeed in the top slot in AJK, while some key PPP leaders are actively lobbying for Barrister Sultan.
PPP to form coalition government in AJK
