ISLAMABAD Two opposition parties that did not fare well in Thursday's polls for the Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly staged a 'ritual walkout' in the National Assembly on Friday to protest against the alleged rigging, to be counter-charged by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who said it would give a wrong message vis-Ã -vis the Kashmir dispute between Pakistan and India.
Both the prime minister and one of his ministers dismissed the allegations from the Pakistan Muslim League-N and Pakistan Muslim League-Q after the two parties put aside their own rivalry for a while for the token protest over the vote in which they won only two seats each, compared to 12 of the ruling Pakistan People's Party from the contested 23 of the 33-seat assembly.
But the prime minister accused the two opposition parties also of implying through their charges that the roles of India and Pakistan in Kashmir were similar.
'Gilgit-Baltistan is part of Kashmir ... (it is) not part of Pakistan,' he said and asked the protesters, who had walked out just as he rose to speak, 'what message you are giving' to the other side? 'We should not give a message that there is no difference between them and us,' he said in a reference to vote-rigging charges often made during elections in the Indian-held Kashmir.
The prime minister recalled rigging charges made about every election since 1985, whether held by a military dictator or a civilian government, and, while denying opposition charges, said 'If you meet the people (of the area), you will realise what kind of election it was.'
Before leading the walkout, opposition leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan of the PML-N repeated the allegations he had made in a speech in the house on Wednesday -- which saw two opposition walkouts -- such as the federal government 'opening its coffers' and using Baitul Maal funds to influence what he called 'a drama' of election.
But his oratory was marred by a careless, unprintable remark he made about what he saw as PPP tricks aimed to install its government 'everywhere'.
Amid protesting murmurs in the house and after a formal objection from Parliamentary Affairs Minister Babar Awan, the opposition leader regretted and withdrew his remark, though there was no order at the time from Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi, who was chairing the house at the time, to expunge it from the record of the proceedings before the house was adjourned until 5pm on Monday.
What looked like a half-hearted affair, the walkout lasted hardly only a few minutes, and was not joined by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, which also alleges rigging despite being a government ally and is accused by rivals of malpractices like distributing money in its first political appearance in the region though it won only one seat.
PPP chief-whip and Labour and Manpower Minister, who has acted as his party's trouble-shooter in Azad Kashmir and Gilgit and Baltistan for years, called Thursday's vote as 'the most free and fair' in Pakistan's history, which he said the opposition parties should appreciate.
PML-Q's Amir Muqam claimed that the results of the election had been 'prepared' a month before the vote and jokingly thanked the region's interim governor and Kashmir Affairs Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira for 'giving two seats to our party'.
