LAHORE: Independent candidate for LA-41 Kashmir Valley-II in Azad Kashmir Saba Dewan has rejected the election results as bogus and announced to challenge them in the High Court.

Ms Saba Dewan is the wife of Ghulam Mohiuddin Dewan, who had been contesting elections as a Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf candidate and winning. The Punjab police had picked Mr Dewan from his house in the late evening and booked him.

Speaking at a news conference at her residence in Lahore on Wednesday, Ms Dewan said the Punjab government had broken all records of rigging since the arrest of Mr Dewan till the polling day.

Accompanied by various PTI leaders, Ms Dewan said Ghulam Mohiuddin Dewan had been serving the valley people for the past 30 years and continuously being elected.

She claimed that the PML-N was trying for the past several years that Mr Dewan should join the party, but he stood resolute to remain a PTI diehard.

Knowing that the PML-N would not be able to defeat Mr Dewan in a fair election, she alleged that the Punjab Police eventually picked him up and implicated in a false case.

She said the valley voters eventually pursued her to contest the election and added that she too was pressurised by the Punjab Police and was not allowed to go for election campaign, hold corner meetings and even shifted one family members’ votes to different polling stations. She said her polling agents were thrown out of the polling stations, while some were tortured. She said that she had also complained to the returning officer but to no avail.

Ms Saba Dewan said people were protesting in Azad Kashmir and found it right as they were saying that people would be brought to the AJK Legislative Assembly through election rigging. She said people of Pakistan had also been protesting over the illegitimate incarceration of Imran Khan for the past three years.

Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2026