PML-N Vice-President Maryam Nawaz on Friday alleged that Prime Minister Imran Khan was spending money to “buy votes” ahead of the July 25 general elections in Azad and Jammu Kashmir (AJK).

As many as 32 political and religious parties are vying in the polls — prominent among them PML-N, PPP and PTI — for the 45 direct seats of the assembly, 33 of which are located in AJK territory and 12 in Pakistan.

Addressing a rally in Pattaka, AJK, as part of her party's election campaign, Maryam said Imran Khan was now again talking about approaching the International Monetary Fund (IMF), hinting “he doesn’t have money to provide people with food supplies, but he has enough resources and money to buy votes in the AJK elections,” she claimed.

She called upon people to rein in and “catch" Imran if he attempted to "rig" the AJK elections, like people caught 'manipulators' in the Daska by-election.

Hitting out at the government, the PML-N leader said Pakistan was now again experiencing 12-hour load shedding, which, according to her, Nawaz Sharif had contained with his effective policies.

'Selectors supporting Imran'

“Perhaps this is the first summer when Pakistan is witnessing gas load shedding. The selectors who are now supporting Imran were against Nawaz Sharif when he was taking measures to provide relief to the masses,” alleged Maryam Nawaz.

She also castigated the premier for “letting people suffer during the last Ramazan just to get a 1kg sack of sugar.” She insisted the PML-N would not allow the “sun of selection” to rise in Kashmir.

She claimed that a concert was under way at the Foreign Office on July 8 — the day when the country was observing the fifth death anniversary of Burhan Wani, Hizbul Mujahideen leader and a revered figure in Indian-occupied Kashmir.

Taking a jibe at the premier for allegedly keeping mum on Kashmir issue, she said Imran Khan was changing the names of roads, observing mourning once a week to fight the case of Kashmir under his “foreign policy”.

She said premier Khan had claimed Trump would mediate in the Kashmir issue, “but how we let Kashmir go is all that we have now.” The PML-N leader slammed the prime minister for merely asking people to observe “two-minute silence” in solidarity with Kashmiris, alleging “this is all that has been doing for the cause of Kashmir”.

She questioned how a man — who spent all his life in a cricket ground — could know about the foreign policy of a country. “He keeps on ruthlessly hitting the people of Pakistan with the same bat that he would use in the ground,” she said in an indirect reference to the premier.

Accusing the prime minister of “giving away” Kashmir to India, she claimed measures were afoot to bifurcate Azad Jammu and Kashmir as well.

Earlier, she thanked the people of Pattaka for turning up in large numbers at the PML-N rally.

She insisted that the PML-N was still a popular political party in the AJK. “You can suppress the voice of Nawaz Sharif, you can declare him absconder… but the people of AJK still admire him,” she added.