PPP chief calls for fresh elections in AJK says government has lost its credibility

“People are being lied, there are no signs of CPEC in the region, promise of good governance and development is a hoax”

Muzaffarabad: President Pakistan Peoples Party (AJK Chapter) Ch. Latif Akbar has said that the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly has lost its credibility and the Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider Khan should dissolve the assembly and announce a fresh date for holding a free and fair elections in the state.

Addressing a press conference at Central Press Club Muzaffarabad on Saturday Akbar while launching a scathing attack on the incumbent PML-N government said that those cabinet ministers and legislators who have enjoyed foreign tours in the name of Kashmir must make details of their trips public so that people would know the reality.

Expressing serious concerns over the budget he said, “PPP fairly and squarely rejects the present budget, the government’s promise of good governance and development proved nothing but an empty slogan, innocent people are being cheated and lied, there are no signs of CPEC in the region, there is no accord on Neelum Jehlum project”. Regarding the Kohala Hydropower Project the PPP president said that his party would only allow a run-of-the-river project.

He was of the view that Prime Minister has badly failed to discharge his duties as the chief executive of the state. He pointed out that government had failed to utilize 3.5 billion development budget during the financial year 2018-19, which he said was the utter incompetence of the incumbent regime. He said that Pir-Chinasi road constructed with financial assistance of Kashmir Council was better but the present government failed to launch any substantial tourist-facility and service on the road.

Flanked by party leaders including Ch. Rashid, Bazil Naqvi, Shoukat Javed Mir and others the PPP president said that in his budget speech finance minister distorted the facts and uttered a magnitude of lies. The government he said had lost its credibility by speaking lies day in and day out. Health sector he said was no longer a priority for this government. “The state institutions have been crippled, educated youth are being crucified in the name of so-called merit system, and government has no funds for education and health care”, he said adding that no facilities whatsoever were provided to the firing victims settled along the LoC.

Regarding Kashmir he said that there was a dire need to highlight the Kashmir cause at international level more effectively saying that the government had failed to do the same. The PPP president while condemning the Indian state terrorism in occupied Kashmir has urged the world community to play its due role in resolving the lingering dispute, which he said was a major cause of tension and rights violations in the reigon.