ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party has raised questions over neutrality of GB’s chief election commissioner in the recently held Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly elections, arguing that instead of taking action over ‘open and blatant violation of electoral law’ by the federal government he is asking the opposition parties to provide proof.

This attitude was enough proof of the partial conduct of the GB’s CEC himself, said Taj Haider who heads PPP’s Central Election Cell.

“Shall we give proof of the open and blatant violation of electoral law by Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs for running full-fledged campaign for his party and making promises of development works to the electorate? Shall we give proof of his making appointments of a candidate as his adviser a week ahead of the polling day? Shall we give proof of the Prime Minister standing in Gilgit on a national day and attacking the opposition in a political speech in that he also made a promise of granting provincial status to Gilgit-Baltistan? Shall we give proofs of many ministers and advisers addressing public meetings even after the time for campaigning had ended?

“Shall we give proofs of disappearance of ballot boxes and replacing genuine forms 45 with fake forms 45?” he asked, explaining that such open crimes were punishable with the disqualification of the lawbreakers.

Mr Haider said if the CEC had taken any action on the complaints of blatant pre-poll rigging and the polling day rigging, the post-poll rigging would not have taken place.

He said gross lapses on part of the CEC resulted in the open theft of the mandate of the people. “One should not ignore that the people of Gilgit-Baltistan have been waiting for a fair deal for the last 70 years. It was their forefathers who won their independence through armed struggle. One can rest assured that the peaceful struggle of the people of the area will ultimately result in the restoration of their mandate,” he said.

In his televised address to the nation, Prime Minister Imran Khan also asked the opposition on Tuesday to provide proofs of the alleged rigging in GB elections.

Various opposition party leaders for the past couple of weeks have been asking the GB CEC to take notice of PM’s announcement about grant of provisional provincial status to the region just days before the polls and the election campaign being run by his cabinet members in violation of Election Act.

Published in Dawn, November 18th, 2020