Sardar Attique tipped as new PM

MUZAFFARABAD/LAHORE: The new prime minister for Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) will be elected on Thursday, July 29.

President of the ruling All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference and former prime minister Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan has appeared to be the only candidate for premiership as outgoing prime minister Raja Farooq Haider’s faction of the Muslim Conference has boycotted the election to protest AJK President Raja Zulqarnain Khan’s decision to summon an assembly session earlier than Haider had suggested. The assembly will meet on July 29 instead of Aug 6, as Haider had suggested. Haider’s group has decided to move the court against the president’s decision, which they say is in violation of the state’s constitution.

Sardar Attique is likely to win the support of parliamentary opposition parties, including the AJK chapter of the Pakistan Peoples Party, the Peoples Muslim League and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement. As many as 35 members of the legislative assembly, including 18 cabinet ministers who had resigned earlier, are expected to support him. He requires the vote of 25 out of 49 members to show a simple majority in the house and assume office of the prime minister.

Sharif opposes govt intervention

Meanwhile, Chief of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Nawaz Sharif has formally approved the launch of his party’s Azad Jammu and Kashmir chapter. The approval was granted in a meeting Sharif had with Raja Farooq Haider, the former AJK prime minister, at the latter’s Raiwand estate on Tuesday. Veteran Leaguers, like Raja Zafarul Haq and Pervez Rashid, also attended the meeting.

Haider stepped down on Monday after the opposition, led by Muslim Conference chief Sardar Attique, decided to table a no-confidence motion against him in the AJK Legislative Assembly. Haider briefed the PML-N supremo about the opposition move. Sharif said the PML-N was opposed to the PPP-led government’s intervention in the political and administrative matters of Azad Kashmir.

“It’s our long-standing demand that the elected representatives in AJK should be given full authority to conduct political and administrative matters,” he added. “Now it has become imperative to launch the party in Azad Kashmir.”  (WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT FROM ONLINE)

Published in The Express Tribune, July 28^th, 2010.