MUZAFFARABAD: Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas on Friday expressed gratitude to the people for turning up “in large numbers” to welcome and listen to PTI Chairman Imran Khan at Thursday’s public meeting in Muzaffarabad.

“I express my thanks to all Kashmiris, particularly my sisters and daughters, who made it to the yesterday’s historic public meeting from different parts of Muzaffarabad division notwithstanding Assu (the seventh month of Sikh calendar commonly recognised as grass cutting season) and muggy weather,” he said in a statement.

“This bears testimony to the fact that the Kashmiris harbour unwavering affection for their ambassador,” he added in a reference to Mr Khan.

The AJK premier said the PTI chief’s categorical rejection of the incumbent regime’s covert efforts to establish trade relations with India amid unrelenting oppression and killings in occupied Kashmir had “once again made it clear that he was the true representative and ambassador of the freedom seeking Kashmiris.”

Mr Ilyas also thanked and congratulated the PTI lawmakers, including his cabinet members, and the office-bearers and activists of the party’s regional chapter and its affiliates for their contribution in holding the “most successful” public meeting.

“Kashmiri people have pinned high hopes on Imran Khan and his party’s government in Azad Kashmir. I assure them that we will leave no stone unturned to come up to their expectations,” he said.

Meanwhile, dismissing the claim of the PTI, opposition PPP alleged on Friday that the ruling party had spent Rs300 million on its “completely flop show” in Muzaffarabad.

“The failure of the public meeting simply means that the masses have expressed no confidence in the PTI and its Mr Ilyas led imposed government,” said leader of the opposition Chaudhry Latif Akbar at a press conference.

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2022