PML-N’s Barrister Iftikhar Gilani Elected as 17th Prime Minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir
MUZAFFARABAD: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly has elected Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) member and technocrat Barrister Iftikhar Gilani as the 17th Prime Minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
The new Prime Minister Iftikhar Gilani got 30 votes. Shah Ghulam Qadir, the overall president of PML-N’s AJK party, was not present at the assembly session while the new premier got one vote from each of the allied members of the Awami Dast-o-Bazu and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, apart from PML-N’s vote.
Sardar Mukhtar Ahmed Khan Abbasi, a candidate of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) for the office of the Prime Minister, was able to grab 14 votes. The assembly session for election of the prime minister began one hour late at 3.00 PM as members voted on the Leader of the House, a role that requires him to be elected with a majority of votes cast.
.One of the reasons for the postponement of assembly session was the reconciliation efforts that were going on with the former prime minister Farooq Haider till the end of the hour. Iftikhar Gilani personally went to Farooque Haider’s house to convince him.Before this, nominations papers for the new Leader of the House and Prime Minister were submitted in duly in the AJK Legislative Assembly.
The Pakistan Peoples Party presented nomination papers for Sardar Mukhtar Ahmed Khan whereas PML-N got Barrister Iftikhar Gilani. Meanwhile, the PPP’s nominee Leader of the House Sardar Mukhtar Ahmed Khan had filed his nomination papers with Amir Abdul Ghaffar Lone, Zobia Khurshid and party members.
Iftikhar Gilani is noteworthy as he was elected to the AJK Legislative Assembly in the last general elections on the ticket of the PML-N from a technocrat seat. Barrister Iftikhar Gilani first made his appearance in the Azad Kashmir Legislative Assembly in 2011 when he was elected to it and he has been serving as Minister of Education in AJK before.