• Urges PML-N, PPP to avoid hurting public sentiment amid AJK poll dispute
• Maryam rejects PPP’s rigging allegations, asks party to ‘consider logic’
• Sharjeel says elections will be remembered as ‘Form 47 Plus’
ISLAMABAD: PML-N supremo and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif said on Saturday that while political differences between opponents were common during elections, they should never turn into animosity, apparently referring to the deepening differences between the ruling party and its coalition partner, the PPP, at the Centre.
Elections concluded in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) this week amid tensions between protesters and the authorities that have persisted for over two months.
Addressing a PML-N convention in Murree, the party president congratulated the winners of the elections in AJK, while extending his commiserations to the losing candidates. However, he noted that the complaints from the PPP had been “upsetting”.
“We have always maintained good relations with our opponents. There is always disagreement in politics, but it should not reach the point where it creates animosity,” he said. “This is unacceptable.”
The PML-N supremo noted that AJK’s atmosphere had always been good, but lamented the buildup of enmity.
“I was upset over their [PPP’s] losses, and I have good relations with them personally,” Mr Sharif said. “We need to look at those factors that contributed to their defeat. We had very good candidates who bravely contested these elections. If they [PPP candidates] were defeated, we must look at the reasons why.”
He noted that “we can lose seats, but we cannot lose our spirit”.
“God has granted us victory in these conditions. As you know, there have been three phases in these elections; the third phase has yet to conclude. But God granted us a majority in the first two phases. We cannot thank Him enough,” Mr Sharif added, warning that there was “no room” for hurting public sentiment.
The PML-N supremo opined that this was the first time such an environment had been created in AJK. He attributed it to successive governments failing to fulfil their duties and meet the needs and requests of the people, regardless of whichever party was in power.
‘Uplift in AJK’
“We absolutely need to enable progress in AJK, whatever way we can. We need to resolve problems there, and we will do what we’ve done in Punjab there,” he stressed.
“It should be our duty, and we need to fulfil public sentiment. If, God forbid, we fail to deliver, the people of AJK will grow angry, and the reason behind it is valid. We would then need to look inward.”
The PML-N supremo noted that the region needed a great deal of development and tasked his brother, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, to provide AJK with as much funding as possible to build roads and hospitals and ensure people had livelihoods.
“Tourism needs to be promoted, and industry must be established. Agriculture requires our full attention, and [we can provide] agricultural loans like those in Punjab,” he added.
Moreover, he said people in Punjab were receiving loans for their houses and expressed his intention to launch such schemes in AJK.
“I will absolutely direct Shehbaz Sahib to launch these schemes in this region, and besides that, provide funding,” Mr Sharif declared.
“People [need to] feel that they are being granted their rights. The people of AJK look at Punjab’s roads, hospitals and hope they are built in AJK; AJK’s children want laptops in their hands, and people should receive Kisaan cards and livelihoods.”
Mr Sharif further said the rest of Pakistan was moving forward and was different from the past, while hailing PM Shehbaz’s efforts and vowing that the current problems would be resolved very soon.
“Punjab is changing, and AJK should be changed in the same way,” he emphasised.
‘Consider logic’
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Sharif’s daughter, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, spoke about the PPP’s allegations of electoral rigging in the AJK polls, saying that it should “consider the logic” of making such claims.
“It is upsetting that they [the PPP] made false allegations of rigging against the PML-N. When they won in Gilgit-Baltistan, they made no claims of rigging; where they lost, they made these allegations,” she added.
She said the PPP could not promise the people of AJK new roads and a clean environment, as it was “unable to provide those to the people of Sindh”.
“In making these allegations, they forgot that the government, administration, president, prime minister and staff were theirs. They should consider logic when levelling allegations against others,” she added.
PPP reaction
Senior Sindh minister, PPP’s Sharjeel Inam Memon, in response said the results of the AJK elections would be remembered in history as “Form 47 Plus”.
Mr Memon said that Mr Sharif’s statement that he did not expect complaints from the PPP was “regrettable”. “Before complaining about the PPP, he [Mr Sharif] should also consider how the political situation in AJK arose. The PPP has always respected democratic principles, public mandate and tolerance. If questions arise regarding irregularities in the elections, it is our democratic right to raise them,” he added.
He said the PPP had never wanted hostility with any political party but at the same rigging or interference with the public mandate could not be accepted in the name of democracy.
Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2026
