November 26, 2008	Wednesday	Ziqa'ad 27, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Nov 25: The Pakistan People’s Party has intensified behind-the-scenes efforts to dislodge the Muslim Conference-led government in Azad Kashmir.

Sources told Dawn on Tuesday that the PPP had started contacting disgruntled elements in the ruling party to strike a deal.

Although, PPP leaders have been denying that the party intends to dislodge the AJK government, sources said its central leadership had established contacts with some members of the forward bloc within the ruling party.

The chief of Azad Kashmir PPP, Chaudhry Abdul Majeed, on Tuesday asked Prime Minister Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan to either seek a vote of confidence or resign his office.

He claimed that the AJK prime minister had lost the confidence of a majority of the 36-member legislative assembly and presently he was left with the support of only 14 lawmakers.

Chaudhry Majeed made the demand at a news conference organised by the party at its now almost abandoned central secretariat to announce that Sardar Rashid, a Muslim Conference member from Poonch, had joined the People’s party.

A former MNA, Chaudhry Manzoor, was also present.

Chaudhry Majeed said the PPP did not want to destabilise the AJK government and wanted continuity in the system, but in the same breath, he called for holding of fresh elections in Azad Kashmir.

“We do not want any intervention from the centre and want to resolve the issue within the AJK Assembly,” the PPP leader said, ignoring the fact that he was doing the news conference in Islamabad.

Reporters were told by the PPP central secretariat staff that the Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs, Qamaruzzaman Kaira, would speak at the news conference.

However, the minister did not turn up prompting speculations that it was part of a strategy.

Sardar Rashid, the member who joined the PPP, told reporters that the party had been in touch with him for the last two years.

He denied that he had joined the PPP because it was a ruling party.