GILGIT, Nov 2: Leaders of the Pakistan People’s Party Northern Areas have said that the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) does not exist in the Northern Areas nor people of the region ‘want’ it.

They were addressing a session of the PPP on the 59th Independence Day of Gilgit-Baltistan at the Peoples’ Secretariat here on Thursday. They said that certain self-styled leaders had been making claims about popularity of the ARD in the region but “we do not belong to it”.

They said they reposed trust in the leadership of PPP’s provincial president Syed Jafar Shah and member central executive committee Muhammad Musa.

The leaders including Murtaza Khan, Mir Nawaz, Ali Khan and Ilyas Khan reminded workers of the sacrifices rendered by their forefathers for liberation of Gilgit-Baltistan on Nov 1, 1947, and urged them to forge unity among themselves to foil nefarious designs of few elements that were active to divide people on sectarian lines.