India says PoK polls a farce

India today said the elections held in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir lacked ‘‘credibility’’ as pro-independence political parties were not allowed to contest.

India today said the elections held in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) lacked ‘‘credibility’’ as pro-independence political parties were not allowed to contest. Besides, international observers were also not allowed to monitor the polls.

The government said the situation in Gilgit-Baltistan, the other part of Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir, was ‘‘even worse as its residents do not enjoy the basic political right to vote’’.

‘‘Once again the entire exercise shows the lack of credibility of the electoral process in the so-called Azad Jammu and Kashmir,’’ the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs told reporters here about the polls held yesterday.

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Pakistan had rejected nominations of 30 out of 31 candidates of the pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (Amanullah Khan) after they refused to sign the declaration of Kashmir’s accession to Pakistan.

The Election Commission of the PoK also rejected 30 nominations of the All- Party National Alliance (APNA), a coalition of other pro-independence parties of PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan.

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