By Ali Imran
ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar said on Thursday the Azad Jammu and Kashmir general elections acted as a “super spreader event” for the coronavirus with the region’s positivity rate ranging between 25 and 30 per cent since then. The AJK elections were held on July 25 following which the PTI has formed a government there.
According to the official results of the July 25 polls, the PTI clinched 26 general seats of the AJK Legislative Assembly, followed by 11 by the PPP, six by the PML-N and one each by state-based AJK Muslim Conference and Jammu Kashmir Peoples Party.
Umar, who also heads the country’s coronavirus response, said he had recommended delaying the elections so a special vaccination campaign could be carried out but it was not agreed to.
“Since the elections, the positivity of AJK is running between 25 and 30pc,” he tweeted. In the run-up to the elections, the National Command and Operation Centre had reportedly written a letter to the chief election commissioner of AJK, stating that due to the rise in the number of Covid-19 cases, the polls should be delayed.
