KARACHI: PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Friday said PPP remained committed to resolving the political turmoil in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), reflecting on the party’s “reputation for finding solutions.”
The PPP chairman’s remarks come amidst the party preparing to move a no-confidence motion against the current AJK Prime Minister Chaudhry Anwar-ul-Haq, after the PPP’s ranks in the 53-member AJK legislative Assembly swelled to 27 after ten — all elected on PTI tickets in the July 2021 general elections — from the forward bloc joined the party on Sunday.
Speaking to the media in Islamabad today, Bilawal said that his party “was in a position to form a government in Kashmir, being a majority,” while reaffirming that the party remained committed to “resolving the issues of Kashmir and honouring the hopes and dreams of its people.”
“Whatever the issues are, PPP has a reputation for finding political solutions,” Bilawal asserted.
The PPP Chairman acknowledged that the current legislative assembly, until the elections, will be a “test” for the PPP.
Bilawal vowed that “PPP’s foundation was laid down in the name of the Kashmir cause,” adding that “three generations of the PPP leaders have struggled for the cause’ on both national and international levels.
He continued: “We all know what the conditions were in the last elections, it was Khan sahib’s govt, and (we know) the role the establishment had at the time; however, even in those times, I’m proud of PPP representatives in AJK. PPP won the election, but overnight their victory was taken away; the same script was applied in Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan as well.”
He regretted that “due to non-political behaviour and mindset, a vacuum was created in AJK, as a result of which, the people are being harmed,” he said, cautioning that it may also “pose a threat” to the Kashmir cause on the international level.
He asserted that PPP “was the sole party which is capable of representing Kashmir within the country as well as internationally.”
He vowed to give a “befitting response” to any conspiracy against AJK.
“I promise the people of Kashmir that I will not disappoint you,” he concluded.
While a joint no-confidence motion against AJK PM — signed by PPP and PML-N members — has been finalised, the former has yet to announce its nominee to succeed him.
On Thursday, after days of consultations, President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif endorsed the plan.
Sources said the name of the PPP candidate for AJK premiership would most likely be announced today (Friday) after a meeting of the PPP AJK parliamentary party to be chaired by the PPP chairman.
On Monday, addressing a press conference with Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal and Adviser to the Prime Minister on Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah today, PPP leader Qamar Zaman Kaira had said: “It has been decided that the current AJK govt, which we both parties were part of, has become a basis of creating a crisis instead of solving problems.”
“Now there is a consensus of opinion that a no-confidence motion will be brought against it on which the PPP and PML-N will be together,” Kaira added.
Meanwhile, incumbent AJK PM Haq, who at one stage had decided to step down, has decided to remain the chief executive of the state as long as he can.
A source close to him said though the option of resigning before a vote on no-confidence will be open, PM Haq was ready to face the vote.
