ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib on Thursday said the people of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) would bring the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) into power by rejecting the ‘lies and hollow claims’ of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leaders.
“Both the parties foresee their defeat in the AJK upcoming elections as they not only failed to field strong candidates but also lack popular support there,” he said in a televised news conference.
He said both the parties had faced the ‘worst-ever’ defeat in the Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) elections for making ‘false’ claims, and the outcome of AJK polls would also not be different.
The minister said the Federal Government allocated record funds for the GB in the Public Sector Development Programme 2021-22 after the area people gave heavy mandate to the PTI at the hustings.
Similarly, he said, the AJK would also have a PTI man as prime minister, eventually marking a new era of development with creation of massive job opportunities and improved infrastructure.
Prime Minister Imran Khan, he said, would come up to the expectations of AJK people, who knew that he was the only leader having the capability to present their case before the world in a befitting manner.
Imran Khan had already been playing a role of ‘true advocate’ for the Kashmiris at international level.
Chiding the leadership of both PPP and PML-N for their rift over political issues, the minister said Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Maryam Safdar should better continue their fight instead of misleading the AJK people.
The two young leaders, in the past, had reached a rapprochement, but they could not reconcile even for a few days as they had the single agenda of saving their corrupt fathers, he added.
Farrukh said Maryam Safdar had the only qualification of being the daughter of Nawaz Sharif, while Bilawal Zardari had become PPP chairman on the basis of a ‘chit’ (Parchi).
He asked Bilawal as to how and when he had become the champion of Kashmir cause. It was only Prime Minister Imran Khan who had exposed the Hindutva ideology of Modi before the world.
He said the Western media, which avoided reporting against India, had started highlighting the human right violations, committed by the occupation forces in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) especially after its illegal action of August 5, 2019.
“This is why the Kashmiris deem Imran Khan a true ambassador of their cause,” he said, adding they had complete confidence in the leadership of prime minister as he had been fighting their case at the international level vociferously.
Criticizing Maryam Safdar, he asked her to explain as to what she had done for Kashmir. “Before speaking over Kashmir, you should introspect as to how you (PML-N) have exploited the people of AJK on the pretext of development work”.
Recalling the time when Nawaz Sharif as prime minister preferred to attend Narendra Modi’s oath-taking ceremony and refused to meet the Hurriyat leaders of occupied Kashmir in India, he said the Indian prime minister was used to attend private functions of the Sharif family.
The level of affability of the Sharif family, he added, could be gauged from the exchange of gifts between Nawaz Sharif and Narendra Modi.
Expressing astonishment over the PML-N leadership’s demand of airing Nawaz Sharif’s speeches, he asked them to name a single country where an absconder had a right to appear on TV channels. The courts had declared Nawaz an absconder and fugitive, and restored his sentences in the corruption cases, he added.
