Senior journalist Hamid Mir has said that responsibility for allegations of rigging and election-related violence in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) elections should rest with the government administering the constituencies where the alleged incidents took place.
Speaking during a private media show, Mir said that allegations concerning territorial constituencies in AJK could not be separated from the fact that the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) currently governs the region.
“If they are alleging that the PML-N rigged the second phase of the elections, then the blame falls on the PPP because it is the government in Azad Kashmir,” Mir said.
He added, however, that the situation was different for refugee constituencies, most of which are located in Punjab.
“If the allegations relate to the refugee seats, then the Punjab government can be blamed because those constituencies fall there,” he said.
Mir said both the PPP and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) were accusing each other of manipulating the electoral process, describing the claims as part of an ongoing political dispute rather than one-sided allegations.
Referring to the PPP’s claims of election-related violence, Mir pointed out that the party had alleged that one of its supporters was killed during polling. He argued that accountability for such incidents also rested with the government responsible for maintaining law and order in the area.
“If the PPP says there was violence and one of its supporters was killed, then the responsibility for that also goes to the PPP because it is still in government in Azad Kashmir,” Mir said.
Mir also noted that voter turnout had remained low, although he did not cite any figures.
Commenting on the wider political situation, he said many people in Azad Kashmir believed elections alone would not resolve the region’s longstanding issues.
He urged the PPP and the PML-N to move beyond the dispute over seats and engage in dialogue to address broader challenges facing the region.
