The PPP and the PML-N continued lambasting each other on Saturday, extending their rhetoric from the ongoing elections in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) to the other party’s previous tenures in power.

The PPP and the PML-N — coalition partners in the Centre — have been engaged in a war of words since the PML-N emerged as the winner in the elections in AJK’s Mirpur division. The PPP has accused the PML-N of rigging in Mirpur and demanded re-polling.

Political temperatures remain high as the second phase of AJK elections is set to be held tomorrow in nine constituencies of Muzaffarabad division. The third phase is scheduled for August 10 in all 12 refugee constituencies and 11 constituencies of Poonch division.

In the latest exchange, PML-N senior leader Rana Sanaullah remarked on President Asif Ali Zardari’s role as he responded to PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s allegations of rigging in the 2024 general elections.

“If you call the votes secured by the prime minister votes of Forms-47, then on what forms has the president gotten votes on?” Sanaullah said.

On Wednesday, Bilawal had taken a direct jibe at Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, saying: “If someone is sitting on the PM’s seat, or someone is sitting on the CM’s position today, even a child knows that it is not because of the people’s votes or your performance but because of Form-47.”

Sanaullah, also the prime minister’s aide on political affairs and a federal minister, was addressing a gathering in Jhelum Valley alongside Kashmir Affairs Minister Amir Muqam.

Sanaullah further said: “If you say to Mian Nawaz Sharif that he became the prime minister for the first time or every time through rigging, […] then remember, it is also discussed here that someone also became the prime minister for the first time after breaking apart the country.”

He was referring to PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who became the president of Pakistan in December 1971 after the secession of Bangladesh (then-East Pakistan) following the 1970 elections.

In August 1973, Bhutto took the oath as the prime minister in 1973 under the new Constitution.

Sanaullah also took a jibe at Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, whose recent remarks have sparked a fresh debate in political circles on the matter of creating new provinces.

Calling Naqvi a “blessed one” of President Zardari, the PML-N leader said the interior minister had “made the [political] journey of 30 years in three-and-a-half years”.

“You began from where and have now reached where, and now you realise that this system is completely dysfunctional.”

In his speech, Muqam criticised the PPP’s governance in Sindh, saying that no performance of the party could be seen.

He also said the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) — a scheme that the PPP often takes credit for launching — was not “anyone’s personal programme but the government’s”.

Earlier on Saturday, PPP leader Saeed Ghani alleged that the PML-N had never won a general election without rigging.

This followed a press briefing by Punjab’s education and sports ministers, where they said that the chief ministers of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had nothing to show for their performance.

PML-N never won an election without rigging: Ghani

Addressing a press conference in Karachi, Ghani said, “The PPP did not secure power through rigging in any of the elections held till today.

“On the other hand, however many times the PML-N has secured power, it has not been without rigging.”

Ghani, also the Sindh labour minister, made the allegation as he responded to a PML-N member calling on the PPP to not “give lectures on democracy”.

“If you do not want to give the PPP the right to speak on democracy, then will you give it to Gen Musharraf or Gen Zia, or the leaders created by them?” he quipped, referring to the two former military dictators.

The PPP leader said he “did count the 1985 election”, alleging that PML-N supremo and ex-premier Nawaz Sharif “conspired” against ex-prime minister Mohammad Khan Junejo.

He further claimed that his party “became a target of rigging” in the 1988 and 1990 elections, which resulted in the PML-N winning. He went on to allege that the PPP was again “controlled and prevented from forming a government in Punjab” in 1993.

Ghani alleged that the PPP was restricted to “16-17 seats” in the 1997 general elections, when Nawaz’s PML-N again formed the government.

He contended that although the PPP secured power in 2008, the “PML-N was made to win seats, especially in Punjab, through rigging during Musharraf’s tenure”.

Ghani claimed that the PML-N was “made to win” the 2013 elections as well.

“Then the elections in 2024 [took place]. No matter how many times they say, everyone, even children, know that the PML-N was badly defeated in the elections,” he asserted.

The PPP leader alleged that Nawaz, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz “lost their own seats and then blame us”.

Ghani made the remarks after explaining the rationale for his party’s stances on new provinces in Sindh and Punjab, stressing that it was based on the wishes of the people.

He emphasised that the Constitution required any such move to be made through the elected representatives in the provincial assembly concerned.

He noted that the “people of Sindh, its representatives and its assembly say there is no need for further provinces in Sindh”.

On the other hand, Ghani pointed out, the Punjab Assembly and the Senate had passed resolutions over a decade ago calling for two new provinces in Punjab.

“If the people and the elected representatives of Sindh say that there is no need for any new province in Sindh, then no one in Punjab has the right to say whether there should be a new province in Sindh or not,” Ghani asserted.

He went on to stress that the PPP advocated for more provinces in Punjab as the “people of Punjab and their elected representatives” desired that.

The PPP leader emphasised that his party “represented” the citizens of each of the provinces when taking a stance for Sindh and Punjab.

At the outset of his press conference, Ghani also took exception to comments made by “two ministers”, saying it seemed that they “did not know anything about Sindh”.

“They are restricted within a circle called Maryam Nawaz. They only see and say what she tells them, shows them and explains to them,” he said in an apparent reference to the Punjab ministers.

An army officer was martyred during an intelligence-based operation (IBO) in the Razmak area of North Waziristan district, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement on Saturday.

During the operation, security forces also killed five terrorists affiliated with Fitna al Khawarij, according to the military’s media wing.

Fitna al Khawarij is a term the state uses for terrorists belonging to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

The ISPR said that Major Hafiz Ihsan Elahi, 34, from Mianwali district, was “a brave officer who was leading his troops from the front, fought gallantly, paid the ultimate sacrifice” and embraced martyrdom.

Weapons and ammunition were also recovered from the killed terrorists, “who remained actively involved in numerous terrorist activities” against security forces and law enforcement agencies, as well as in the killing of civilians.

“Sanitisation operations are being conducted to eliminate any other India-sponsored terrorist found in the area. Relentless counter-terrorism campaign under the vision ‘Azm-i-Istehkam’ (as approved by Federal Apex Committee on National Action Plan) by security forces and law enforcement agencies of Pakistan will continue at full pace to wipe out the menace of foreign-sponsored and supported terrorism from the country,” the ISPR statement read.

“Such sacrifices of our brave soldiers further reinforce our unwavering commitment of safeguarding our nation at all costs.”

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the government was implementing a comprehensive and effective strategy to “completely eliminate” the menace posed by the proscribed Fitna-al-Hindustan, Fitna-al-Khawarij and other terrorist outfits to the country.

Pakistan has seen a surge in terrorism since the banned TTP ended its ceasefire deal with the government in November 2022, vowing to increase attacks.

Last month, in the wake of multiple major attacks in Balochistan, Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) and Chief of the Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir had reaffirmed that terrorism “emanating from across the borders will be crushed with full might of the state”.

On July 29, the military’s media wing said security forces killed 32 terrorists during operations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

7 terrorists killed in Nushki IBO

In a separate statement, ISPR said security forces killed “seven Indian-sponsored terrorists” during an IBO in Balochistan’s Nushki district on the night of July 30/31 July.

Among those was a would-be suicide bomber, the ISPR said, noting that the IBO was carried out on the “reported presence of terrorists belonging to Indian proxy, Fitna al Hindustan” — a term designated by the state for terrorist organisations in Balo­chistan.

During the operation, a terrorist hideout was “identified, monitored and busted through prompt surgical action by own forces, killing all seven Indian sponsored terrorists, including a suicide bomber”, the statement said.

It added that ammunition and improvised explosive devices found there were also destroyed on-site.

Sanitisation operations were underway to eliminate “any other Indian sponsored terrorist found in the area”.

The military’s media affairs wing reaffirmed that the counter-terrorism campaign under Vision Azm-i-Istehkam would continue “at full pace to wipe out the menace of foreign-sponsored and -supported terrorism from the country”.

A day earlier, Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Sarfraz Bugti vowed that the state would not retreat “even an inch” in its fight against terrorism.

Last month, security forces killed at least 16 terrorists during “Operation Al-Azm” in Balochistan’s Mastung district, which was launched after a shooting on a Karachi-bound coach claimed three lives and injured five others.

Security concerns heightened in Balochistan after a spate of major terrorist attacks took place in early July, which prompted counterterrorism operations across the province.

Among the counterterrorism efforts was Operation Shaban, in which 91 terrorists were killed between July 5 and July 16, according to security sources cited by state media. This took the tally of terrorists eliminated in operations across the province during the period to 129.