Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that the people of Mirpur have given the PPP a majority and that it is now the party’s responsibility to protect the public mandate. He urged the State of Pakistan to decide whether the interests of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) or those of Pakistan are more important.
Addressing party workers, Bilawal questioned the situation unfolding in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), asking whether the developments from Mirpur to Poonch could be described as democracy. He congratulated the voters for giving the PPP a majority in line with their electoral mandate.
Bilawal said the PPP would neither step back nor bow before anyone. Referring to senior PPP leader Chaudhry Yasin, he claimed it was unacceptable that Yasin had won the city seat but lost his ancestral constituency, alleging that the same tactics used in the previous elections had been repeated.
He said the PPP stands with the State of Pakistan and supports the national interest. “We are the ones who say ‘Pakistan Zindabad’. We stand with the Government of Pakistan in matters of national interest, and we stand with the State of Pakistan in the national interest,” he said.
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However, Bilawal said the PPP was not prepared to stand with anyone for the sake of the PML-N’s political interests. He called on the state to “open its eyes” and see what, according to him, was happening to Pakistan and Kashmir in the name of protecting the PML-N’s interests.
He said Azad Kashmir would never be allowed to become “occupied Kashmir,” adding that the state should consider the consequences of actions being taken in the region.
Bilawal alleged that there had been a pre-planned effort to form a government through force and “the back door.” He accused his political opponents of seeking to run a government through the use of bullets and by allowing people to lose their lives in pursuit of power.
The PPP chairman further claimed that there had been a deliberate plan to put pressure on Azad Kashmir, spread fear and disappointment among the people, and encourage an election boycott. According to Bilawal, the objective was to reduce voter turnout, making it easier to commit electoral rigging and establish a government through coercion.
