The elections for Azad Jammu and Kashmir legislative Assembly will take place today (Tuesday) wherein 2.4 million voters to choose 41 members for five year term from amongst 369 contesting candidates.
The eighth election, after 1971 when for the first time elections for AJK Legislative Assembly were held, does not have any prominent leader of liberation following the demise of former President, Sardar Muhammad Ibrahim Khan and Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan and Sikandar Hayat Khan's decision not to contest the elections.
The elections for 41 seats, 29 in AJK and 12 equally divided among the refugees from the valley and Jammu regions of the occupied Kashmir, settled in Pakistan, are being held among the candidates of AJK Muslim Conference of Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan, Pakistan Peoples Party AJK of Sahabzada Ishaq Zafar, Pakistan People Muslim League of former AJK Prime Minister, Barrister Sultan Mehmood and two new entrants in AJK politics, Muttahida Qumi Movement (MQM) and Mutahida Mujlis-e-Amal (MMA).
Sardar Attique is contesting from District Bagh, Barrister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhary from district Mirpur, Sahabzada Ishaq Zafar from Hattian Bala district Muzaffarabad, and Ijaz Afzal of MMA from Rawalakot. It appears that the outcome of this election would be an hung parliament as no party looks in a position to clinch majority.
Talking to Business Recorder, the officials of the AJK Election Commission said that all arrangements have been made for polling at 4858 polling stations where over 9,000 military, para-military and local police troops have been deployed to hold free and impartial elections.
Four army men and one officer, besides local police and para military forces, would be closely watching the situation at each polling station. He said that the Chief Election Commissioner would visit the polling stations of eight districts to see for himself the polling process. His tour will start with a visit to the four polling stations equally divided for the migrants voters in the twin cities, followed by Bhimber, Mirpur, Kotli, Rawalakot, Muzaffarabad, Bagh and Poonch.
However, he did not answer to a question that how many polling stations were declared sensitive and what measures were taken to avoid any untoward incident.
AJK residents settled in Pakistan could also contest from any of the six seats reserved for the migrants from Jammu. Nine of these constituencies were located in the Punjab while the remaining constituencies fall in NWFP, Balochistan and Sindh.
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