MIRPUR (AJK)
Lambasting former AJK Prime Minister and now PTI leader Barrister Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry for switching loyalty frequently allegedly for the sake of power, his erstwhile comrade, Senior AJK Minister Ch Muhammad Yaseen categorically said, “Sultan can even join the BJP in his lust for power if he is offered a slot by the party.”
Yaseen made the remarks while addressing a joint press conference-cum-election rally (for March 15 by-poll to LA-III Mirpur City constituency) along with AJK Premier Abdul Majeed on the eve of joining of PPP AJK by former City Mayor and the Muslim Conference leader Ch Muhammad Ashraf at his residence ‘Naangi House’ in Mirpur Monday Evening.
Central leader of All Jammu Kashmir Muslim Conference and the prospective candidate of PPP for the scheduled March 15 by-election Chaudhry Muhammad Ashraf announced on the occasion to resign from the primary membership of the Muslim Conference and enter the fold of PPP AJK along with hundreds of his associates including Sajid Pehlewan, ex-District President of Muslim Conference, Mirza Rashed Baig and others. Ashraf reposed full confidence in the leadership of PPP led by Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Asif Ali Zardari, Faryal Talpur, Ch Muhammad Riaz, Rizwan Qureshi, AJK Prime Minister Ch Abdul Majeed, Senior minister Ch Yaseen and Secretary General of PPP AJK and Finance Minister Ch Latif Akbar.
Besides the host of the ceremony Ch Ashraf, AJK Prime Minister Ch Majeed, Secretary General of the PPP AJK and Finance minister of AJK Ch Latif Akber, Sajid Pehelwan and Chaudhry Waqas Ashraf also addressed the news conference. They numbered the series of development projects launched by the sitting AJK government in Mirpur district and rest of AJK including three medical colleges and three universities.
Ch Ashraf announced to hand a convincing defeat to his close arch rival the PTI’s candidate and ex Prime Minister Barrister Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry in the by-election to the LA-III Mirpur city seat scheduled for March 15 from the platform of People’s Party Azad Jammu Kashmir.
Bitterly criticizing Barrister Sultan’s style of politics, the AJK Senior minister said that power had always been atop the priority of the Barrister. He said “in search of power, Barrister Sultan spent whole of his political life by instantly changing the political loyalties one after the other by travelling through various political parties including Azad Muslim Conference, Jammu Kashmir Liberation League, PPP, Peoples Muslim League, again PPP and at present in the PTI, which he had joined recently after having been utterly sick and perplexed over refusal of power in AJK by the PPP’s top leadership”, he added.
Ch Yasin invited the citizens of Mirpur to vote for the PPP’s candidate Ch Ashraf in the March 15 by-poll to demolish the statues of long vested interest politics through defeating the impending nearest rival PTI’s candidate - Barrister Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry.
It may be added that the seat LA-III Mirpur City had fallen vacant after the former AJK Prime Minister and sitting Member of the AJK Legislative Assembly from treasury (PPP) benches Barrister Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry resigned from the Assembly seat leaving the ruling PPP AJK fold and joined Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
Under the defection clause, a sitting member of the legislative assembly (MLA) seeking shift of loyalties from his or her party in the legislature to another, is required to resign from the membership of the legislature while leaving the concerned party under whom fold he or she was elected to the legislature, lower house of the AJK parliament.