Barrister Iftikhar Gilani set to be elected as prime minister of AJK

Barrister Syed Iftikhar Ali Gilani is set to be elected as the 17th prime minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir today after the revised schedule for the election was issued by the AJK Legislative Assembly.

The AJK Legislative Assembly summoned its session for today to elect the new prime minister. The nomination of Gilani and the reservations expressed by senior PML-N leaders have made the election a closely watched political contest in the parliamentary history of AJK.

According to the revised schedule, nomination papers would be filed from 9:30am to 10:30am on August 28, while scrutiny of the papers would be conducted from 10:30am to 10:45am. The list of candidates would be displayed at 11am.

Candidates may withdraw their nomination papers between 11am and 11:30am, after which the final list of candidates would be issued at noon.

The election for the prime minister would be held at 2pm after Friday prayers, while the newly elected prime minister would take the oath at 4pm at the Presidency.

Read: Nawaz nominates Barrister Syed Iftikhar Ali Gilani for AJK premier

The PML-N has the support of 32 members in the 53-member AJK Legislative Assembly, including its allied Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam and Awami Dast-o-Bazu, while the PPP has 14 votes.

The PPP nominated two candidates for the office of prime minister, Mukhtar Ahmed Abbasi and Bazal Naqvi.

The PML-N was expected to secure the election of its nominee, Gilani, with the support of its coalition partners.

Meanwhile, AJK Legislative Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Tariq Farooq hosted a dinner for members of the PML-N parliamentary party and its allied parties at a private hotel on Thursday night.

Read More: PML-N secures speaker, deputy speaker offices in AJK Legislative Assembly

Of the 32 lawmakers supporting the ruling coalition, only 26 attended the dinner.

PML-N AJK President Shah Ghulam Qadir, former prime minister Raja Farooq Haider Khan, Yasin Lone, Sehrish Qamar, Pir Mazhar Saeed Shah and Sajid Abbasi were among those who did not attend the dinner.

Earlier on August 24, Farooq was elected speaker of the AJK Legislative Assembly with 32 votes while Ahmed Raza Qadri was elected deputy speaker with an equal number of votes.

Following Gilani’s oath-taking, a small cabinet is also expected to take the oath.

Earlier this week, Nawaz nominated Qadir as the party’s candidate for the top office in AJK after PML-N secured a majority in the AJK elections held in three phases between July 27 and August 10.

In a post on X earlier in the day, PML-N leader and Punjab Senior Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb had said that Gilani had been nominated for the office of AJK prime minister following consultations within the party leadership.

Gilani was elected to the AJK Legislative Assembly on a technocrat seat and was expected to seek the support of PML-N lawmakers for his election as the new prime minister.

The development, however, triggered differences within the PML-N’s AJK chapter. Qadir reportedly expressed reservations over Gilani’s nomination and, according to party sources, said that he would neither vote for Gilani nor attend Friday’s session of the legislative assembly called to elect the prime minister.

Haider also reportedly expressed reservations over the nomination.

According to party sources, Qadir and Haider conveyed their reservations during a meeting held at the Prime Minister’s House in Islamabad on Wednesday in the presence of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Qadir maintained that the party must respect the mandate given to it by the people of AJK and uphold its political narrative of “Vote Ko Izzat Do (respect the vote)".

Sources said that Qadir was expected to consult senior party leaders and workers before announcing his future political course.

The reported differences have added an unexpected twist to the PML-N’s government-formation process in AJK, where the party had emerged as the largest parliamentary group and was expected to form the government with relative ease.