MUZAFFARGARH – Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has been elected as the Prime Minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).
Niazi bagged 33 votes while PPP and PML-N’s joint candidate, Chaudhry Lateef Akbar managed to secure only 15 votes.
The PTI leader will take oath as the 13th prime minister of Azad Kashmir, replacing outgoing Raja Farooq Haider.
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Imran Khan had nominated Abdul Qayyum Niazi as the PTI’s candidate for the post.
On Tuesday, the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly elected PTI’s candidate Chaudhry Anwarul Haq as its new Speaker.
Haq received 32 votes out of total 49 to become 11th Speaker of the AJK assembly, while Opposition’s candidate Faisal Mumtaz Rathor bagged 15 votes in the election.
Before the speaker’s election, the newly-elected members of the AJK legislative assembly took the oath of their duties.
Outgoing Speaker of the AJK assembly, Shah Ghulam Qadir, administered the oath to the new members, including six women lawmakers.
However, President Muslim Conference Atiq Ahmed Khan and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) member Javed Iqbal did not take the oath.
On Monday, the PTI won three more reserved seats of the AJK assembly, increasing its total seats to 32 in the 53-member house.
The PTI candidates picked for the reserved seats of ulema/mashaikh, technocrats and overseas Kashmiris were Muhammad Mazhar Saeed, Muhammad Rafiq Nayyer and Muhammad Iqbal, respectively.
In the general elections for 45 seats, the PPP managed to bagged won 11 seats, while the PML-N won six seats.
PM Imran thanks Kashmiris as PTI wins AJK polls
On July 26, Prime Minister Imran Khan thanked the people of Azad Jammu and Kashmir for voting the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), which rules the Centre, to power in the territory in recently held AJK Legislative Assembly election.
PM Imran Khan in a tweet said, “I want to thank the ppl of AJK for placing their trust in PTI through their votes which resulted in PTI’s electoral victory”.
He added that the PTI will focus on bringing the people out of poverty through our Ehsaas & Kamyab Pakistan programmes.
He promised to establish accountability and transparency in the government.
“I want to congratulate all our successful candidates. As ambassador for Kashmir I will continue to raise my voice on all international forums incl UN to ensure the int community fulfills its commitment of self determination to the Kashmiri ppl through a UN-sponsored plebiscite,” the premier tweeted.
Read more: https://pakobserver.net/qureshi-thanks-kashmiris-for-supporting-pms-ideology/
