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Government hindering transparent AJK elections: Nisar

* Says top govt official threatening AJK assembly members, involved in horse trading
* PML-N wants transparent transfer of power

By Irfan Bukhari

ISLAMABAD: The federal government is hampering transparent elections for the leader of the House in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly, Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said on Tuesday.

“The former AJK prime minister resigned as he did not have support from the majority in the legislative assembly. Now we ask the federal government to let a person, who enjoys the majority’s support, become the leader of the House and not interfere in the AJK politics,” Nisar said.

He said a top government official, who held several positions at the same time, was threatening members of the AJK Legislative Assembly and was involved in horse trading. “The Pakistan People’s Party only has seven seats in the legislative assembly and wants to form a government through dirty politics,” he said.

Transparency: Nisar said the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz did not have any “favourites” in AJK, but wanted transparency in the transfer of power.

“If we don’t see a change in the government’s policy towards AJK’s political affairs, the PML-N would submit a requisition to convene a National Assembly session to take up the issue in parliament,” he said.

He said politicians from AJK had told PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif on Monday that government agencies were also being used to form a government of choice in AJK. “We know that Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Kayani has restricted the role of the agencies and the military from politics, which is highly commendable, but government officials are still employing nasty tactics that they had used in the past,” Nisar added.

He said Nawaz had taken up the issue with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who had assured the PML-N chief that transfer of power in AJK would be conducted transparently. “The evil spirit of Pervez Musharraf still haunts the corridors of power,” Nisar said.

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