All rigging records broken in Gilgit-Baltistan: Shujaat

ISLAMABAD PML-Q President Ch. Shujat Hussain Sunday admonished the PPP government for not learning lessons from its past blunders, saying that the rigging conducted by the regime in Gilgit-Baltistan had broken all past records.
The Gilgit-Baltistan rigging has even broken the records of the 1977 vote fraud and even the coalition partners of the government are agitating over this cheating. However, since we are against destabilising the democratic set up, we have accepted the poll results. If any party does not accept the poll results, its members should quit, Shujat told a press conference held here at the PML House.
Flanked by Secretary General of the party Mushahid Hussain Sayed, Secretary Finance Imtiaaz Ranjha and Deputy Secretary Information Ghulam Mustafa Malik, Shujat also issued his partys 17-point fact sheet on rigging in the Gilgit-Baltistan polls.
Asked to comment on the controversial minus-one formula to oust the sitting president Zardari, he said his party did not support any minus-one type formula.
Neither we support any such idea nor would we be part of it. We are against destabilising the democratic set up, he added.
He said his party had held massive public meetings in Gilgit-Baltistan and the popularity level of his party was enormous.
My party confronted those parties who were either enjoying government resources in center or in provinces. We are the only real opposition party that defeated all the government-backed candidates and secured two seats despite massive vote fraud. There is such a strong PPP-PNL(N) nexus that even our candidates from GBLA 23-Ghanche, Amna Ansari, who had won the polls was declared defeated and a PML-N candidate was announced successful. We have decided to challenge this fraud, he announced.
Refuting the claims made by Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani that all political parties had been provided with government resources, Shujat said that neither his party was offered any facilitation nor it accepted any helicopter or any other facility from the government.
Advising the government to form a consensus government in Gilgit-Baltistan keeping in mind its strategic significance, Shujat said that any unrest or destabilising could harm the strategic national interests. However, he ruled out the impression that his party would join the government in either case.
Answering another query on Balochistan package, Shujat said that 70 percent of the proposals made by his party pertaining to the Balochistan package were made a part of the package prepared by the PPP regime.
Asked whether any of his party members or leaders had benefited from the controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO), Shujat said none of his party colleagues had benefited from NRO.
Mushahid said that no party or element wanted to destabilise the government and it was the government itself that was making blunders and shifting its responsibility to others.
There is no chance of any snap polls as neither any political force nor establishment wants to overthrow the government. Rather, it was the establishment that helped them enter the power corridors. However, after the opposition of its allies to NRO, the government has lost moral grounds as well as majority in technical terms, he added.
He also brushed aside the impression that his party wanted to be a part of the government. He said it was his partys proposal to decide National Finance Commission (NFC) Award on the basis of backwardness, poverty and area rather than on population. However, he said that ANP and PML-N in Punjab were following the Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman Model by criticising the government while being a part of the present setup.
Referring to the Gilgit-Baltistan polls, Mushahid said that his party had held massive public gatherings and even the Prime Minister visited the area as the situation was turning to be in control of his party.
He said that the government resources had won in the polls and the PPP regime had smashed away all rigging records.
Gilgit-Baltistan is a strategic region and due to its borders with China and Kashmir, its significance becomes more vital. My party wants to connect the people of Gilgit-Baltistan with China and during my recent tour of China, I have explored for a strong bond between Xingjian and Gilgit, and Kashghar and Skardu, he said, adding that he would lead a delegation of Gilgit-Baltistan to Kashghar Mela.