Clock is ticking on PML-N govt: Bilawal

PPP chief launches fresh attack on ally in X video Slams 'killer, bloody' elections in Azad Kashmir Says strug

ISLAMABAD:

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Monday lashed out at federal coalition partner PML-N for alleged rigging in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) elections, claiming that the "countdown for the federal government has begun".

As the second phase of the AJK Legislative Assembly concluded with the PML-N securing 23 seats, the PPP chief took to X and posted a series of posts and video messages.

According to Bilawal, the recent elections were not transparent or fair. "These were bullet elections, these were killer elections, these were bloody elections," he claimed.

He claimed that despite all the rigging, the PPP stood victorious on nine parliamentary seats. "The seats that were stolen from you in Mirpur and Muzaffarabad, God willing, I will deliver them to you," he said in an apparent address to the PPP voters.

Bilawal said the struggle for the right to sovereignty, the right to ownership and the right to livelihood would continue, and the movement would no longer remain confined to the mountains of Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B).

"I will carry forward this movement across the entirety of Pakistan. My message to the friends of the PML-N is just this much: that voice is reaching you!! Listen carefully! Tick tock tick tock. Your countdown has begun," he warned.

Bilawal paid tribute to the people of Kashmir for the courage and boldness with which they confronted "the threats, rigging and bullets" of the PML-N. "I salute you," he added.

He noted that during the election campaign, the workers of the PPP "embraced martyrdom; our member of the National Assembly was shot in the hand; an attack was made on the president of our state of Azad Jammu and Kashmir".

Bilawal stated that his workers did not lose heart or retreat, and showed the entire world how the PPP fought for the rights of the people of Kashmir, including the right to sovereignty, the right to ownership and the right to employment.

With the completion of the first two phases of the AJK elections, the PML-N has emerged as the clear frontrunner, consolidating its position to form the next government in the region. According to unofficial and provisional results, the party has secured 23 seats, while the PPP has won nine seats.

In the first phase of polling, held in Mirpur Division on July 27, the PML-N captured nine of the 13 contested seats, with the PPP winning the remaining four.

The second phase, conducted on Sunday across Muzaffarabad Division and refugee constituencies, further strengthened the PML-N's position as it added another 14 seats to its tally, while the PPP increased its strength by five seats.

With only the third and final phase of polling in Poonch Division remaining, the PML-N already appears to have secured enough seats to stake its claim to form the next AJK government.

Since the start of the election campaign, the PPP and the PML-Nwhich have shared power at the federal level since the removal of Imran Khan's government in April 2022have targeted each other in a bitter campaign.

The PPP has accused the PML-N of neglecting the people of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, particularly amid the region's continuing unrest over the ongoing protests led by the Joint Awami Action Committee (Jaac), an alliance of traders which was proscribed in June.

The PPP also started accusing the PML-N of pre-poll rigging when its government in Punjab gifted ten electric buses to the people of the AJK. During the election process, the two parties have been accusing each other or resorting to violence and rigging.

Meanwhile, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar stated that while political point scoring was part and parcel of the election process, the PPP should have put in more effort to secure victory, as it had done in the Gilgit-Baltistan elections.

Tarar further criticised Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon for his "baseless accusations" of election rigging and asked where the evidence for this was, adding that accusations should be backed with irrefutable evidence and should not be made for their own sake.