ISLAMABAD: As the election year has begun in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), the opposition’s Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) and the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) have decided to stage their shows of power in the valley at two different venues on Feb 5 when Kashmir Solidarity Day will be observed.

As the 10-party PDM has already finalised its plan to hold a public meeting in AJK capital Muzaffarabad, the PTI said on Saturday that Prime Minister Imran Khan would address a public gathering in Kotli the same day.

Talking to Dawn, a PTI spokesman said the party’s secretary general Aamer Mehmood Kiani had been directed to visit Kotli on Sunday (today) to finalise arrangements for the public meeting for which the party had already given the task to the president of the PTI’s AJK chapter Barrister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhry.

The barrister has been busy for the past few days in causing defections in the AJK chapters of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). Some members of the two parties have already announced their decision to join the PTI ahead of the elections scheduled to be held later this year.

An AJK minister said that Prime Minister Khan would first address a special and traditional session of the AJK Legislative Assembly in the morning on Feb 5 and then would fly to Kotli for the PTI’s public gathering there. However, there was no official confirmation from the PTI about the participation of the prime minister in the AJK Legislative Assembly session.

PDM leaders to gather in Muzaffarabad; Imran to address public meeting in Kotli

The PDM had earlier announced its plan to hold a rally and a public meeting at Liaquat Bagh, Rawalpindi, on Feb 5 but later on the proposal of PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif the alliance decided to shift the venue to Muzaffarabad. The suggestion for shifting the venue had been given by Mr Sharif to PDM chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman during a telephone conversation last week.

According to PML-N insiders, the earlier venue — Liaquat Bagh, Rawalpindi — had been selected as a part of the build-up for the PDM’s planned long march. Since dates for the long march had not been finalised yet, holding the Kashmir Day rally at Liaquat Bagh had lost its justification, they said.

Secondly, they argued, since the local leadership had recently arranged a gathering in front of the Election Commission of Pakistan’s office in Islamabad, burdening it with arrangements for another show just two weeks down the lane was hardly justifiable.

Talking to Dawn, senior vice-chairman of the PML-N and PDM secretary general Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said that the Muzaffarabad public meeting would be addressed by Maryam Nawaz and Maulana Fazlur Rehman. However, he said, PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had not yet confirmed his participation since he was busy in the wedding of his sister Bakhtawar Bhutto-Zardari.

On the other hand, after winning elections in strategically-located Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), the PTI has already started preparations for the polls in AJK. In November last year, the party had announced that it had decided in principle to contest the AJK elections without forming electoral alliance with any political party.

PTI chief organiser Saifullah Nyazee in a recent statement had termed the party’s victory in the rigging allegations-tainted elections in GB “historic” and said that the PTI had become a strong and popular political entity in AJK.

A source in the PTI said that the party leadership was expecting to win elections in AJK as per the past tradition, saying that history showed that the party leading the federal government always won elections in the two regions with special status. He said that they expected that like general elections in Pakistan in 2018, several “electables” would join the PTI before the AJK polls.

The five-year term of the AJK Legislative Assembly and the PML-N government in the region will end in July.

Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2021