AJK Assembly session adjourned without electing new PM

By
Afzal Butt
|
Arif Urfi

April 17, 2023

The newly-elected members of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly under taking oath under chair of outgoing speaker Shah Ghulam Qadir in Muzaffarabad, on August 3, 2021. — Twitter/GovtofAJK
The newly-elected members of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly under taking oath under chair of outgoing speaker Shah Ghulam Qadir in Muzaffarabad, on August 3, 2021. — Twitter/GovtofAJK

  • AJK president's forward bloc causing trouble for PTI. 
  • Session will resume at 11am tomorrow. 
  • AJK PM's seat fell vacant after Tanveer Ilyas' disqualification.

MUZAFFARABAD: A session of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Assembly to elect a new prime minister was adjourned on Monday without the poll being held. 

The election was announced after Sardar Tanveer Ilyas' disqualification by the AJK High Court in a contempt case.

The session, which was due to start at 11am, finally began at 3:30pm under the chairmanship of Speaker Riaz Ahmed. However, the session was adjourned till 11am tomorrow without a new prime minister being elected. 

The PTI enjoys a majority in the AJK Legislative Assembly, but their path to secure a candidate loyal to Imran Khan as the premier may get difficult.

AJK President Barrister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhry has rebelled against his own party and created a forward bloc in the assembly. According to sources, Chaudhry’s forward bloc has the support of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

However, PML-N AJK President Shah Ghulam Qadir told Daily Jang that as per a “power-sharing formula” their alliance was with the PPP.

“If the candidate for PM was from PPP then we would have been bound to vote for him,” explained Qadir. He added that the PPP did not contact the party when it was negotiating with the forward bloc and neither did the latter contact them.

“If the situation remains like this then PML-N, with its seven votes, will make its own decision,” said the PML-N leader.

However, sources shared that after seeing Qadir’s reaction AJK President Chaudhry reached out to the PML-N to seek support for the forward bloc candidate. 

Sardar Tanveer Ilyas disqualified 

Last week, in a major setback to PTI, AJK High Court disqualified Sardar Tanveer Ilyas for contempt of court.

The decision of the high court came after Ilyas was summoned to AJK's supreme court and high court for using a "threatening tone" in one of his speeches.

The court declared Ilyas ineligible from holding any public office and asked AJK's Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Abdul Rasheed Sulehria to hold polls for a new prime minister.