The Jamaat-e-Islami chief, Syed Munawar Hasan, has condemned the open rigging and the government interference in the Azad Kashmir Legislative Assembly's elections and said the shameful activities of the PPP had given a negative message to the Held Kashmir people as also to the world community which could have adverse effects on the Kashmir freedom movement.
He said the PPP Secretariat in Islamabad and Muzaffarabad virtually worked as election commission. Offices of their choice were appointed as polling officers, electoral constituencies and polling stations were changed at the last moment and government machinery was used to harass the rival candidates and obstruct their elections activities. He said that Prime Minister Gilani toured the constituencies of the PPP candidates by helicopter thus setting the worst example of abuse of government machinery.
Syed Munawar Hassan condemned firing at the election caravan of the JI Azad Kashmir chief, Abdur Rashid Turabi, and said there had been record rigging in this constituency where JI workers were subjected to torture and their vehicles were set on fire. He condemned the clashes in different areas resulting in loss of life.
Expressing his total dissatisfaction over the Azad Kashmir elections, the JI chief termed it as a drama. The PPP, he said, had always secured victory through unconstitutional and unlawful means. He said that despite claiming itself as the people's party, the PPP had always attempted to bulldoze the public opinion instead of accepting the public mandate.
Syed Munawar Hasan said that fair, free and transparent elections were impossible under the PPP government and its evil, illegal practices were bringing bad name to the country. The PPP was thus forcing the masses to launch a campaign for its ouster from power, he added.