Bilawal claims that following “rigged” AJK votes, the federal government’s countdown has started.

Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has strongly slammed the federal government and said that “the countdown of the government has started” after rejecting the recently held Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) elections as “so heavily rigged”.

His comments come amid increasing political tensions even as the PPP continues to be an important coalition partner of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) at the centre.

In a video message, Bilawal said the AJK votes were neither free nor fair and accused the authorities of engineering extensive electoral interference. He commended PPP workers for winning nine electoral seats despite the result and promised that the party would continue to fight the so-called stolen mandate.

Bilawal termed the AJK polls as “rigged elections”, “bullet elections”, “murderous elections” and “bloody elections” and that the democratic process had been undermined.“So you have won nine seats for the Pakistan People’s Party after all this,” he addressed party workers and congratulated them on what he termed triumphs in difficult circumstances.

The PPP would continue its campaign for the recovery of the seats which were allegedly “stolen” in Mirpur and Muzaffarabad, he said.