ISLAMABAD
\nThe PTI on Saturday accused the federal and Gilgit-Baltistan governments of \u201cpre-poll rigging\u201d over the deployment of 5,600 local police personnel and over 13,000 additional security personnel from outside the region ahead of the polls.
\nElections in GB are scheduled for Sunday (June 7), after a four-month delay attributed to harsh winter weather. The PPP and other political parties have staged a series of rallies across the region and ramped up efforts to garner support ahead of the polls.
\nThe PTI called upon the international community, human rights organisations and all democratic forces to take immediate notice of the gross violation of fundamental rights and the \u201cblatant murder of democracy\u201d in the region.
\nMeanwhile, the party\u2019s Information Secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram criticised the unprecedented deployment of external forces and the \u201csystematic suppression\u201d of the PTI.
\n\u201cIn a region with a total population of approximately 900,000 and only 5,600 GB police personnel, the federal government has deployed over 13,000 additional security personnel from outside Gilgit-Baltistan, including 11,000 from the Punjab Police, 1,000 from the Sindh Police, 700 from the Frontier Constabulary (FC) and 140 from the ICT Police,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cThis overwhelming presence of external forces, far exceeding the requirements of the local population, lays bare the regime\u2019s alleged intent to seize control of polling stations, disrupt the voting process with the help of local proxies and engineer a pre-determined outcome on election day,\u201d he alleged.
\nAkram further claimed: \u201cThis massive influx of police is not for maintaining peace but for orchestrating large-scale rigging. The Form-47 government is deliberately pushing the peaceful region of Gilgit-Baltistan into an atmosphere of fear and hostility by attempting to prevent genuine voters from exercising their right to vote for the PTI.\u201d
\nHe alleged systematic pre-poll rigging, saying internet services and landlines had been disrupted across Gilgit, noting that it was \u201ca classic tactic to sever communication among PTI workers and supporters\u201d. He further claimed that key PTI workers had been arrested in Gilgit over the past two days, even as the situation, according to him, had been improving for PTI candidates.
\n\u201cPTI MLAs (Members of the Legislative Assembly) were coerced and bribed to abandon the party. Leaders and workers loyal to Chairman Imran Khan were forced into exile from GB. The PTI election symbol was arbitrarily banned,\u201d Akram claimed.
\n\u201cA last-minute alliance with the Gilgit-Baltistan Democratic Party was sabotaged when its symbol was abruptly withdrawn at midnight via a single text message to returning officers, without any written orders or legal justification from the Election Commission,\u201d he claimed.
\n\u201cPolling schemes were manipulated to target PTI and local nationalist candidates. Postal ballots for PTI have been blocked under fabricated pretexts, while PPP and PML-N candidates enjoy unrestricted access,\u201d Akram alleged.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD The PTI on Saturday accused the federal and Gilgit-Baltistan governments of \u201cpre-poll rigging\u201d over the deployment of 5,600 local police personnel and over 13,000 additional security personnel from outside the region ahead of the polls. Elections in GB are scheduled for Sunday (June 7), after a four-month delay attributed to harsh winter weather. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549936,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-549925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-top-news"],"yoast_head":"\n