PM Shehbaz congratulates PML-N after party maintains lead in second phase of AJK polls

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif congratulated the PML-N’s leadership and successful candidates on Monday after unofficial results of the second phase of elections in Azad Jammu and Kashmir showed it had won 14 of 18 seats up for grabs the previous day. The PML-N’s main rival in the contest and also its ally in the Centre, the PPP, has accused the PML-N of electoral malpractices, rigging and violence during Sunday polls, as it had during the first phase of the elections in Mirpur division on July 27. The PML-N secured nine of the 13 seats in the first phase while the PPP won the remaining four. Elections in AJK are being held in three phases over security concerns, with polling having been…