Minister for Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan Affairs Ali Amin Khan Gandapur Saturday said the federal government has provided all kinds of support to the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) government to ensure free, fair, transparent and peaceful elections.
Addressing a press conference here, the minister said both Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) have tried their best to spoil the election environment, but Pakistan Tahreek-e Insaf (PTI) has thwarted all their efforts by keeping the party workers calm.
He cited the incident that took place when he, along with Minister for Communication and Postal Services Murad Saeed and other PTI leaders, was heading to a public gathering in connection with the upcoming elections in AJK when some infuriated people pelted stones near Jhelum Valley.
“We have decided not to respond to PML-N workers’ attempts to sabotage the general elections process as the whole democratic world is eying elections in the liberated territory,” he asserted.
He said he had informed the public in AJK that the PML-N would promote Indian narrative in its public meeting addresses, adding its Vice-President Maryam Nawaz proved him right by not uttering a single word against the Indian government’s tyranny in Indian-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJK).
Gandapur said PTI would form a government after a landslide victory in the general elections to the legislative assembly of AJK. “We will secure performance-based victory in AJK polls as the federal government had doubled the funds for development projects in the valley,” he said.
The Kashmir affairs ministry, he said, had executed the development projects under Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) that have been pending for over a decade.
He said the federal government had launched a project to build underground bunkers in around 57 villages for the safety of residents living near the Line of Control (LoC).
Gandapur said his government has provided Sehat Insaf Cards to all residents of AJK, while the scope of the Ehsaas Cash Emergency Programme was being extended across the valley to help poor and needy people.
The minister said Prime Minister Imran Khan has internationalised the Kashmir cause by highlighting it at all major international forums.
He said the prime minister had presented their case of right of self-determination in the United Nations General Assembly in the best manner possible.
‘NEXT AJK PRESIDENT, PM WILL BE FROM PTI’: Meanwhile, Punjab Governor Chaudhry Sarwar said that PM Khan is the true representative of the nation and an ambassador of Kashmir. He claimed that the next premier and president of AJK will be from PTI.
During meetings with different delegations in Lahore, Sarwar said that Pakistan is moving in the right direction and the government is working with everyone to uplift the poorer segments of society.
Responding to accusations by Afghan officials against Pakistan, Sarwar said that negative propaganda by the Afghan vice president against Pakistan is a conspiracy against peace. “The Kabul government is trying to hide its failures, but Pakistan will continue to support all Afghans for peace, he added.
