Change of guard: AJK elects Chaudhry Abdul Majeed as PM

Majeed was elected after a last-minute nomination from President Zardari.

MUZAFFARABAD:

Chaudhry Abdul Majeed of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) was elected on Tuesday as the eleventh prime minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).

Newly-elected members of the AJK legislative assembly voted for the position of the prime minister in Muzaffarabad. Majeed secured 35 votes while his opponent Farooq Haider Khan, from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), managed to secure only 11 votes.

Majeed, who was nominated by President Asif Ali Zardari for the premiership, was elected in the June 26 election from a constituency in the Mirpur district.

A secret balloting procedure was held in the house in order to elect the new PM. Outgoing ruling party, the Muslim Conference, also voted for him as did the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.

Majeed won the intra-party race for the post of PM after PPP AJK’s parliamentary party approved him for the post following President Zardari’s last-minute nomination.

His party rival, former barrister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhry, also voted for him in compliance with the
party’s decision. All candidates for the post had been involved in hectic lobbying with the party leadership to receive the coveted nomination, but Majeed was not nominated until Tuesday morning, right before the election.

President Raja Zulqarnain Khan administered the oath to the newly-elected PM at a ceremony held after the election.

Speaking to reporters soon after his victory, Majeed vowed to work towards freedom for Indian Kashmir and wiping out corruption from the region. It is the duty of the AJK bureaucracy to be servants of the people, Majeed said.

President Zardari, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Minister Mehdi Shah congratulated Majeed on winning the election.

Meanwhile, outgoing prime minister Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan held a farewell meeting with prominent officials of the AJK administration.

Majeed’s political journey

Chaudhry Abdul Majeed was born in 1946 and is a law graduate. Originally from the Chaksawari area of Mirpur district, he joined the PPP in 1979 and became a speaker of the legislative assembly in 2008. He has also served as a minister in the 1996 PPP government. After the death of the opposition leader Sahibzada Muhammad Ishaq Zaffar in 2006, he was appointed to the position. The same year, he was appointed as the president of PPP AJK.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 27^th,  2011.