Maryam Nawaz terms PoK's Gilgit Baltistan elections 'rigged', says no one would accept poll result
Nov 18, 2020
Islamabad [Pakistan], November 19 : Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz on Wednesday tore into the Pakistan ruling party for "rigging" Pakistan-occupied Gilgit Baltistan elections and said that "no one in Pakistan was ready to accept the fake result" of the elections.
The complete but unofficial results of all 23 constituencies, where polling was held on Sunday, indicate that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has emerged as the single largest party with 10 seats, followed by seven independents.
The Pakistan Peoples Party won three seats, the PML-N two and the Majlis Wahdatul Muslimeen, which had a seat adjustment arrangement with the PTI, got one seat, Dawn reported.
"Even those seats are not his, those seats are courtesy of PML-N nominees that were stolen," the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's daughter said and added: "We won't congratulate Imran Khan for those eight seats, we congratulate the selectors."
Maryam said that she had stayed in Gilgit Baltistan for eight to 10 days for the election campaign and during that time the region was only voicing support for PML-N supremo Nawaz.
She said that even though there was no internet in many remote areas of GB, people were aware of Nawaz's narrative of vote ko izzat do (give respect to vote). The PML-N vice president declared that Nawaz's "narrative had buried" the politics of the ruling PTI.
"It is because of Nawaz Sharif's narrative that despite a fixed match, you did not get a mandate. You only got crutches," she said.
In the 2018 general election, Maryam said, the "selected" was brought to power through rigging. "But today, the difference is that despite rigging, this fake (prime minister) could not win.
Meanwhile, PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has alleged irregularities in Gilgit-Baltistan's elections, saying his party will use all its legal options against the "open and naked rigging" in the polls.
Addressing a press conference in Gilgit a day after polls closed and unofficial results showed the PPP had won only three out of the 24 seats in the GB Legislative Assembly, Bilawal claimed that results were manipulated "overnight" for elections on seats that the PPP was winning and the party was declared to have lost them during the day.
