Revolt against Pakistan Army over PoK poll rigging

Kotli [PoK], July 27 (ANI): Thousands of demonstrators hit the streets in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) to protest against the Pakistan army after reports of election manipulation emerged in the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir Legislative Assembly polls.

Open revolt was witnessed in PoK after Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party (PTI) won 25 seats while the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) came second with 11 seats and the incumbent Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) secured just six seats.

The people were upset because of major interference by the PTI government in the election process of PoK which was conducted on July 25 in which clashes between the opposition parties were also reported.

The PoK assembly has a total of 53 members but only 45 are directly elected.

The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has won 25 general seats of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) Legislative Assembly, followed by 11 seats won by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), six by Pakistan Muslim League (N) (PML-N) and one each by two regional political parties in Sunday’s polls, as per officially announcement made on Monday.

Earlier Prime Minister of PoK Raja Farooq Haider in a statement said: “The assembly elections were nothing but a farce exercise to hoodwink the people.”

Meanwhile, Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) Vice-President Maryam Nawaz has outrightly refused to accept the results.

Taking to Twitter, PML-N Vice-President said that her party fought hard but it is not easy to deal with fraud.

“I have not accepted the results and will not. I have not even acknowledged the results of this fake government. Congratulations to the workers and voters. What will be the course of action on this shameless fraud, the party will decide soon, God willing,” Maryam tweeted.

PPP’s vice-president Senator Sherry Rehman had blamed the Centre for “systematic rigging” and said it was attempting to “steal” the elections.

The PPP leader alleged PTI workers had fired on a PPP worker’s car during polling time, while police had uprooted a camp belonging to her party.PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb in a statement said that PTI “goons” had attacked her party’s workers in Gujranwala’s Alipur Chatha area to “rig” the election.

Aurangzeb said despite PTI workers beating up her party workers, the police “arrested those associated with PML-N”.

“PTI has been allowed to engage in hooliganism with complete liberty,” she said.

Last year, India had criticised Pakistan’s decision to hold elections in the Legislative Assembly election in occupied Gilgit-Baltistan. New Delhi has maintained that any action to alter the status of the militarily occupied region has no legal basis.

The main opposition parties had termed the occupied Gilgit-Baltistan election rigged. (ANI)