ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has questioned the impartiality of the Gilgit-Baltistan Election Commission (GBEC), and said that if the elections were rigged, they would protest on the streets of Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) and Islamabad.
"The Election Commission does not see the prime minister and the ministers who show impartiality and are running the elections campaign in G-B. The GBEC should take notice of it," PPP Deputy Secretary Information Palwasha Khan and Senator Sassui Palijo expressed those views in a joint news conference on Friday.
They said, "GBEC is playing the role of Imran Khan Niazi's employee. The democratic movement has been started to get rid of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government. Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari will not back down from the movement. We ask why the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP)'s hands are tied in the case of Federal Minister Faisal Vawda."
The PPP leaders said, "We don't trust the GBEC. We will go to the higher forum against it. We don't need to be told what the higher forums are."
The PPP leaders also strongly condemned the murder of farmer, Ashfaq Langarial during the protest of farmers in Lahore on Thursday.
They said, "The FIR of the murder should be lodged against the prime minister and the chief minister of the Punjab." Palwasha Khan said that a farmer was tortured to death in Lahore, while the farmers were protesting for their rights. She said that the farmer was breathing his last. No one asked him about the murder.
She said that those were the farmers who grow wheat that we eat. She said that the present government has to answer for it. "The hands of this government are stained with the blood of this farmer," she claimed.
She said that Jahangir Tareen had returned to the country and went home from the airport with honour. No one questioned him till he went home from the airport," she said. Palwasha Khan said that the issue of the G-B elections would be raised at all levels.
She said, "In the case of Justice Qazi Faiz Isa, the president, the prime minister, and Shehzad Akbar have no constitutional status and they should resign immediately."
Senator Sassui Palijo said that people of Gilgit-Baltistan were not for sale. She claimed that Sadia Danish of the PPP was receiving threats. She said that the chief secretary of the G-B had been promoted.
"All federal ministers are campaigning in Gilgit-Baltistan. We will fight for every single vote. We are afraid of taking the polling staff hostage," she claimed.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020