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| Musharraf acomplishes the target in PoK | | Attique Khan to be PM of occupied territory | | NEW DELHI, JULY 14: Gen. Parvez Musharraf's Man Friday in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), Attique Ahmed Khan, will form a new government in Muzafarabad as Prime Minister following the victory of his party, Muslim Conference, in the July 11 Assembly polls.
The Muslim Conference has won 20 out of 40 seats of the 41-member PoK Legislative Assembly while repolling has been ordered in Narowal constituency of the council in the backdrop of allegations of massive rigging. It is likely to add more seats to its tally when elections for 8 reserved seats are held, thus securing absolute majority in the Assembly.
Latest reports reaching Delhi from across the Indo-Pakistan border, a breakaway faction of the Muslim Conference which won three seats is also expected to return to its fold while a party spokesman hoped that three independents would join the Muslim Conference.
51-year-old Attique Ahmed Khan is son of veteran Kashmiri leader Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan. To no one’s surprise, the ruling Muslim Conference (MC) has emerged as the largest party in the July 11 elections. Given the widespread charges of poll rigging and the fact that the party is known to enjoy the favours of the establishment in Islamabad, the results would have been easily predicted. With the MC leader, Attique Khan being granted an audience, along with his father Sardar Abdul Qayyum, by President, Gen. Musharraf, and three members of the MC being appointed advisers on the Kashmir Council in Islamabad just a few days before the polls, people knew which way the wind was blowing.
Even more questionable was Islamabad’s long established practice of disqualifying parties--two of them this time — which do not uphold Kashmir’s “accession” to Pakistan. This approach has been challenged by international human rights groups. Despite these negative aspects, people and political parties in PoK appear to have fully participated in the electoral exercise. This has been held without fail every five years since the seventies.
Seventeen political parties fielded 197 candidates while 172 independents were also in the run. However, indications are that the voters’ turnout was not very high which could be explained by the fact that normality has yet to return to people’s lives after the devastation caused by last October’s earthquake. Whatever might be said about politics in Pakistan occupied Kashmir, it is no secret that it is closely intertwined with the political ups and downs in Islamabad. It is no coincidence that the party in power in Muzaffarabad enjoys the blessings of the rulers in Islamabad.
Of the 41 seats in Azad Kashmir’s Legislative Assembly, 12 are occupied by members elected from the widely dispersed Kashmiri community in Pakistan. Two of these have been won by the MQM which contested 26 seats. In the present situation, the challenge for Islamabad is to ensure an effective and stable coalition government in PoK— while enacting the charade of an “independent” political process there. How much it helps the intra-Kashmir peace process is not very clear.
Opposition People’s Party in PoK, which has won seven seats mainly in the earthquake-affected areas of Muzaffarabad and Neelam Valley, has accused Gen. Pervez Musharraf of “manipulating” election results. PPP president, Ishaque Zaffar, won his traditional seat but the party suffered a major setback when its secretary-general, Yasin Chaudhry, lost by a small margin in Mirpur area. One seat was clinched by Khalid Ibrahim, who leads PPP ally Jammu Kashmir People’s Party in Poonch. The breakaway People’s Muslim League led by barrister Sultan Mahmud got four seats, three in the PoK and one in Pakistan.
Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry has accused the Pakistan government of rigging and manipulating the general elections in PoK on July 11. He has publically stated that Gen. Musharraf often spoke about self-governance in PoK, but the “large-scale rigging” had exposed his claims. “Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain distributed tickets among the Muslim Conference (MC) candidates and President General Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz held a photo session with MC President Sardar Attique and his father Sardar Qayyum, which is clear evidence of pre-poll rigging and an indication to voters that the biggest authorities in Pakistan supported the MC,” Chaudhry was quoted as telling mediapersons in Islamabad.
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