By Staff Reporter
MUZAFFARABAD: Voting got under way in Azad Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday for the second phase of the territory’s legislative elections, with more than 1.2 million people eligible to cast ballots across Muzaffarabad division and 12 constituencies reserved for refugees from Indian-occupied Kashmir.
Polling opened at 8am and will run until 5pm. It covers nine constituencies in Muzaffarabad division and all 12 refugee seats. More than 300 candidates are standing, according to the AJK Election Commission: 207 for the Muzaffarabad seats and 137 for the refugee constituencies.
The commission has registered 809,621 voters across Muzaffarabad division and 438,834 across the 12 refugee seats. It has set up 1,483 polling stations in Muzaffarabad division and a further 1,057 for the refugee constituencies. Of the Muzaffarabad stations, 533 have been classed as highly sensitive, 741 as sensitive and 209 as normal. Eight police officers have been assigned to each highly sensitive station, six to each sensitive station and four to each normal station.
The territory’s Chief Election Commissioner, Justice (retired) Ghulam Mustafa Mughal, said all election material had been delivered and polling staff dispatched under tight security. He urged voters to turn out in large numbers, describing the ballot as a trust that should be placed only in the hands of honest and competent candidates.
Today’s vote is the first electoral test since the PML-N won nine of Mirpur division’s 13 seats in the first phase, against four for the PPP. That result has strained relations between the two parties, which govern together as coalition partners in Islamabad.
PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari called for open hearings into what he described as complaints of rigging during the first phase. In a post on social media platform X, he said the credibility of the elections would be judged by how far fairness and impartiality had been upheld throughout the process.
The dispute became public over the weekend. Addressing a gathering in Jhelum valley alongside Kashmir Affairs Minister Amir Muqam, PML-N stalwart Rana Sanaullah — the prime minister’s aide on political affairs — responded directly to Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s allegations.
“If you call the votes secured by the prime minister votes of Forms-47, then on what forms has the president gotten votes on?” Mr Sanaullah said. Referring to PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who became president of Pakistan in December 1971 after the secession of East Pakistan following the 1970 elections, he added: “If you say to Mian Nawaz Sharif that he became the prime minister for the first time or every time through rigging, then remember, it is also discussed here that someone also became the prime minister for the first time after breaking apart the country.”
Sanaullah also criticised Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, whose recent remarks have reignited debate over the creation of new provinces. Calling Mr Naqvi a “blessed one” of President Zardari, he said the interior minister had made “the [political] journey of 30 years in three-and-a-half years,” and added: “You began from where and have now reached where, and now you realise that this system is completely dysfunctional.”
Senior figures from both parties met repeatedly in Azad Kashmir over the weekend to try to resolve the dispute. One source described the talks as an attempt to find a legal resolution. Meetings were held on Thursday and Friday. A further session was planned for Saturday afternoon but did not take place after PML-N representatives returned to Islamabad.
A PML-N source said the talks had focused on the PPP’s objections and its demand for re-polling in specific constituencies. The PPP had initially disputed results in four constituencies — Charhoi, Nakyal and Sehnsa in Kotli district, and Barnala in Bhimber district — but later dropped its objections over Sehnsa and Barnala. Saturday’s discussions centred on Charhoi, where the PPP’s AJK president, Chaudhry Yasin, lost to the PML-N’s Raja Riasat, and Nakyal, where PPP candidate Javed Iqbal Budhanvi was defeated by the PML-N’s Raja Ayaz Ahmed.
The dispute has also drawn in Pakistan’s ruling family. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif held talks with his elder brother and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif at the family’s Jati Umra residence over the weekend, according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office. The two discussed the party’s political challenges, including the rift with the PPP over the AJK elections. Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz and Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar also attended.
A senior PML-N leader told Dawn that the party’s leadership had taken serious note of Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s rhetoric against the Sharif family, and of his warning that the PPP could reconsider its support for the federal coalition if the remaining phases of the AJK elections were seen as manipulated in the PML-N’s favour.
Polling in Muzaffarabad division and the refugee constituencies closes at 5pm.
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