Jailed PTI leaders urge party to contest AJK elections

ISLAMABAD: Senior Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders currently in jail have urged the party to take part in the upcoming Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) elections and back candidates despite uncertainty over the party’s legal position.

According to party sources, Dr Yasmin Rashid and Shah Mahmood Qureshi were among the imprisoned leaders who sent a letter to the PTI chairman and secretary general through their legal counsel. The letter asked the party leadership to remain in the electoral process instead of staying away from the vote.

The jailed leaders said they had discussed the AJK elections before arriving at a joint position. "We have consulted on the Azad Kashmir elections and have reached the conclusion. We have decided that PTI-supported candidates should participate in the electoral process," the letter states.

The letter also asked the party to make public the names of those who would enter the contest with PTI’s support. "The party should publish the names of all those candidates who will be its supported candidates," it reads.

The appeal came after PTI announced that it would not participate in the AJK elections under the current political situation, saying it would remain out of the electoral process until normalcy was restored in the region.