MUZAFFARABAD: Senior leaders of the PML-N and PPP on Saturday resumed talks aimed at defusing tensions between the two parties following the latter’s allegations of rigging in four of the 13 constituencies in Mirpur division during the first phase of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) elections.
The PPP and the PML-N — coalition partners in the Centre — have been engaged in a war of words since the PML-N emerged in the lead during the first phase of polls. The PPP has accused the PML-N of rigging in Mirpur and demanded re-polling.
The latest round of talks followed two earlier meetings — the first at a local hotel on Thursday night and the second before noon on Friday.
The PML-N delegation comprised Prime Minister’s Adviser Rana Sanaullah, Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs Amir Muqam, and PML-N AJK chapter secretary general and MLA-elect Chaudhry Tariq Farooq.
Representing the PPP were former Senate chairman Nayyar Bokhari, former federal minister Qamar Zaman Kaira and AJK Prime Minister Faisal Mumtaz Rathore, who also serves as secretary general of the party’s AJK chapter.
PPP leader Nadeem Afzal Chan attended the Friday meeting but was absent from today’s session.
The meetings reviewed security arrangements ahead of the second phase of polling on Sunday. Both sides agreed that the Election Commission, as well as the divisional and district administrations, should leave no room for lapses in ensuring extraordinary security measures so that voters could exercise their franchise freely.
According to sources, the discussions also focused on the PPP’s allegations of rigging and its subsequent demand for repolling in certain constituencies.
The PPP was told that neither the government nor any institution had facilitated or backed rigging and that, if irregularities had occurred at any polling station, they were localised incidents rather than the result of any organised plan.
“It was not planned or pre-planned rigging but isolated acts at places where supporters of one candidate enjoyed numerical dominance over their opponents. Such incidents have unfortunately been part of the territory’s polling atmosphere and have also been witnessed in previous elections,” a source quoted the PML-N leaders as telling their counterparts.
The PML-N leadership maintained that, unlike the PPP, it had begun election preparations well in advance and had enforced greater organisational discipline through constituency-level planning.
The PPP, they claimed, had remained under the impression that the elections would be delayed by a year and that the 12 refugee constituencies would be abolished, which prevented it from focusing on electoral preparations in time.
The meeting also discussed ways to address the complaints through both political dialogue and legal channels, the source said.
According to the sources, the PPP had initially raised objections to the results in four constituencies: Charhoi, Sehnsa and Nakyal in Kotli district, and Barnala in Bhimber district. However, it later withdrew its allegations regarding Sehnsa and Barnala.
Saturday’s discussions centred on Charhoi, where PPP 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 sources said the PML-N had presented a detailed analysis of the results, showing that while its candidates had secured more than 80 per cent of the votes at some polling stations, the PPP had also won more than 80pc of the votes at others.
“If any irregularities occurred, they occurred on both sides, and a mechanism has been discussed to address them, legally and politically,” said a PML-N leader.
The meeting tasked both regional secretary generals — Rathore and Farooq — with contacting the Election Commission to explore a legal resolution to the dispute.
Another meeting had been scheduled for Saturday afternoon, but it could not be held because Sanaullah and Muqam had to leave for Islamabad owing to urgent engagements.
Both parties traded barbs earlier this week after the conclusion of the first phase of elections in AJK, with the PPP chairman alleging rigging in the polls and Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz urging the PPP to accept defeat.
The PML-N grabbed nine out of the 13 constituencies of AJK’s Mirpur division in the elections.
In a televised statement, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz hailed the “outstanding victory” of the PML-N in the first phase of the AJK elections, urging the PPP to accept defeat.
“The PPP should have accepted its defeat by affirming the spirit of democracy, but I felt aggrieved by the kind of words used by PPP leaders.”
“The state does not decide election results; only the people make this decision,” she said in response to PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s allegations.
On Thursday, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari warned that a stolen election in AJK would start a “countdown” for the federal government.
“If you steal [the election] … write it down, take my guarantee, that a countdown will start for your federal government,” he warned. “If you steal my mandate, I will come for your throne.”
