With polling only days away, Azad Jammu and Kashmir has become the centre of Pakistan’s political attention as the country’s top party leaders converge on the region ahead of the July 27 Legislative Assembly elections. The Election Commission of Azad Jammu and Kashmir revised its original single-day schedule into a three-phase rollout, with Mirpur Division voting first on July 27, followed by Muzaffarabad Division and twelve constituencies reserved for Kashmiri refugees on August 2, and Poonch Division closing out the process on August 10.

PML-N president Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz jointly addressed a large rally in Muzaffarabad, their first joint appearance in the region in several years. Nawaz spoke of his personal attachment to Kashmir and called for new infrastructure connecting the territory to Punjab, including a motorway along the Jhelum River. Maryam Nawaz used the platform to unveil what she described as a Punjab-style development package for AJK, promising electric buses, mobile hospitals and expanded welfare schemes modelled on programmes already running in her own province, including free medicine distribution and doorstep delivery of official documents.

PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has mounted an equally intensive campaign, addressing rallies in Kotli, Nakyal and Mirpur over the past week. He called the July 27 vote perhaps the most significant election in AJK’s history and invoked the legacies of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto in the region’s constitutional history. Bilawal has pledged to seek observer representation for AJK within federal bodies including the Council of Common Interests and the National Finance Commission, and has renewed his call for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to address recent unrest in the territory, alongside demands that the federal government restore internet services that have been disrupted amid the tensions.

The PPP chairman also accused PML-N of seeking to amend the constitutional arrangement so that Pakistan’s prime minister could effectively install the AJK premier, a claim aimed at Nawaz Sharif’s high-profile presence in the campaign. PML-N has not directly addressed the allegation, instead focusing its messaging on its record of development spending and its coalition with the PPP at the federal level, a partnership that has not extended to this regional contest, where the two parties are competing directly.

According to the AJK Election Commission, more than 1,200 candidates filed nomination papers across the 45 general seats up for election, with the PPP fielding candidates in 43 constituencies under an alliance that ceded two seats to the JUI-F. PML-N nominated 44 candidates, while Islami Jamhoori Ittehad partner Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party, Jamaat-e-Islami and the Muslim Conference have also fielded significant slates. PTI announced it would not participate as a party, citing what it called the politics of power that ignores the voice of the Kashmiri people, though some PTI-aligned figures may contest as independents.

Security arrangements have been tightened across the territory ahead of polling day, and advance voting for government employees assigned election duty concluded earlier this week with what officials described as strong turnout. The Chief Election Commissioner, Ghulam Mustafa Mughal, has repeatedly dismissed speculation that the polls could be delayed, telling reporters the revised three-phase schedule was designed to ensure a peaceful and transparent process rather than to postpone the vote.

Compiled by the Weekly PK Staff Desk.