NAKYAL: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has expressed confidence that his party would form a government in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) with “the power of the vote.”
Bilawal was addressing a rally in Nakyal, Azad Kashmir, as part of his party’s election campaign in the region. “The government and rival parties should know that the PPP has a young chairman,” he said, adding, “You should compete with us on political grounds, but don’t try to fight PPP loyalists.”
The PPP Chairman took a jibe at the PTI-led federal government as well as PML-N’s regime in AJK and said that rulers — whether they are in Muzaffarabad or in the federal government — are cowards.
Bilawal further said the PPP was the “only party in Pakistan which has the support of the poor masses,” adding that the PTI-government, as well as other parties, have “no reason to fear the PPP.”
“If you have to compete against us, then you should do it through the process of voting and election,” Bilawal told the government and other rival parties. He further criticised the PTI government, saying that Pakistan has been unlucky in the sense that it had a “puppet of a prime minister” imposed on it.
The people of Azad Jammu and Kashmir will go to the polls on July 25 to elect new members to the region’s Legislative Assembly. However, Prime Minister Imran Khan is the highest office holder of the region as the chairman of the Kashmir Council.
The legislative assembly consists of 53 members, out of which 33 are directly elected from the 10 districts of AJK. On the other hand, 12 seats are available for the Kashmiri refugees living in the four provinces of Pakistan.
This year, 32 parties including the AJK chapters of mainstream Pakistani political parties are participating in the elections. The region has 3.2 million voters, out of which 1.75 million are male and 1.46 million are female.
