Shehryar Afridi ousted as Kashmir committee chief

The Parliamentary Special Committee on Kashmir on Thursday successfully passed a no-confidence motion against its Chairman Shehryar Afridi, who is also a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader, and elected a new chairman.

The meeting of the special committee was chaired by the additional National Assembly secretary, as Afridi was not present.

Reportedly, no members of the former ruling PTI attended the session, apart from its dissenting members.

The no-confidence motion was moved by Nawab Sher Wasir, a PTI dissident, as the chairman had not resigned.

Sixteen members voted in favour of the no-confidence motion tabled against Afridi, which was then successfully passed.

As chairman of the legislative body, Afridi had previously urged overseas Pakistanis to lobby for the Kashmir cause in their host countries. He expressed these views while addressing participants of the first-ever overseas Pakistanis convention 2022. The event was held under the aegis of the Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir in collaboration with the Overseas Pakistanis Global Foundation (OPGF) and Graana.com.

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After Afridi’s ouster, Wasir nominated Syed Basit Bukhari for the chairman’s slot. The committee members endorsed his name, and Bukhari was elected as the committee chairman.

While talking to the media, Bukhari said that will take the core issues of Kashmir forward with the cooperation of committee members. “I want to send a message to Kashmiris that they should not be disappointed, as after every difficult time, better ones come,” he said.

Prior to the meeting, Afridi, in a tweet said that the “imported government” was bringing a no-confidence motion against him by convening a meeting of the Kashmir committee.

He said that everyone remembers Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s “dark years”. He added that under the leadership of his former prime minister Imran Khan, he raised his voice for the Kashmir issue at every international and regional fora.