Reaping the fruits of an aggressive campaign centered on stoking Kashmir’s embers and all-out attacks on opposition parties for letting down the cause of Kashmiris, Pakistan’s ruling PTI has won the local assembly elections in  "Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK)" - which India calls Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) clinched 25 of the 53 general seats, followed by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) that bagged 11.  Six seats went to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) - which was in power in the province till now = and one each to state-based AJK Muslim Conference (AJKMC) and Jammu Kashmir Peoples Party (JKPP), according to the official results of July 25 polls.
 
The result of one constituency, LA-16, Bagh-III was, however, withheld as polling in its four stations could not be held due to rioting and other reasons, AJK Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Abdul Rashid Sulehria told a press conference. He said re-polling at the stations would most likely be held before July 29. The second phase of elections to fill eight reserved seats is expected to be completed before July 29.

Happy after the PTI’s first victory in the region, Prime Minister Imran Khan expressed gratitude to the voters with a pledge to bring the masses out of poverty and ensure "self-determination to the Kashmiri people through an UN-sponsored plebiscite".

In a couple of tweets after the official results were out, PM Khan stated: “I will focus on bringing the people out of poverty… and establish accountability and transparency in government. As an ambassador for Kashmir, I will continue to raise his voice on all international forums including the United Nations to ensure the international community fulfilled its commitment of self-determination to the Kashmiri people through an UN-sponsored plebiscite,” he vowed.

The PTI was yet to name any candidate for the next 'prime minister' of AJK, though federal Minister for Information Fawad Chaudhry disclosed that the Prime Minister would decide the next AJK president, prime minister and speaker of the Legislative Assembly.

On the other hand, a large number of PPP activists staged a sit-in outside the office of returning officer in Hattian Bala district headquarters to protest the alleged manipulation of election results in LA-32 in favor of Raja Farooq Haider, the outgoing AJK prime minister.

During the campaign, Imran Khan had repeatedly told Kashmiris that they had the right to live as an "independent nation" if they decided to do so even after deciding to accede to Pakistan through the United Nations-sponsored plebiscite.

He had also charged the “two old parties” - PML (N) of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and PPP of former president Asif Zardari - with compromising on Kashmir's cause by befriending Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who he accused of unleashing "state terrorism" in Jammu and Kashmir.

The PTI had trained its guns on Sharif for recently meeting Afghanistan's National Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib, known for his staunch anti-Pakistan stance. In his comments after the PTI’s win, Fawad Chaudhry yet again raised the issue, while dubbing Mohid an agent of Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).

“The meeting of Nawaz Sharif with RAW agent Hamdullah Mohib was felt by the Kashmiris and it reflected in the election results,” said Chaudhry while addressing a press conference in Islamabad, according to Dawn.

The election authorities said 1.99 million of the total 3.22 million eligible voters exercised their franchise, pushing the turnout to 62 percent.

AJK/POK came into being after the 1949 ceasefire between India and Pakistan following the Kashmir war and comprises the parts of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir that were occupied by the Pakistani forces and who have since not vacated it, nullifying the UN conditions for a plebiscite that it had mandated.

Pakistan maintains a constitutional fiction that PoK is not a part of the country, but the “liberated” part of Kashmir. The constitution of Pakistan lists only four provinces — Punjab, Sind, Balochistan, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

While PoK is ostensibly an autonomous, self-governing territory, the Pakistan Army is the final arbiter on all matters Kashmir — and the security establishment exercises tight control over what goes on in PoK, according to an Indian Express explainer.  

(SAM)