By Staff Reporter
MUZAFFARABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz appeared headed into Friday’s vote for a new Azad Jammu and Kashmir prime minister with its own house in disorder, after the party’s central leadership passed over two senior regional figures in favour of a young barrister barely four days into his legislative career — and those passed-over leaders responded by saying they would boycott the election entirely.
The rift became public late on Wednesday, when Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif summoned four senior PML-N leaders from Azad Kashmir to his official residence in Islamabad and told them that party leader Nawaz Sharif had settled on Barrister Syed Iftikhar Ali Gillani as the party’s nominee for the territory’s top office. The meeting, at the Prime Minister’s House, included PML-N’s Azad Kashmir president, Shah Ghulam Qadir; his predecessor in that post and former Azad Kashmir premier, Raja Farooq Haider; the party’s regional secretary general, who also serves as assembly speaker, Chaudhry Tariq Farooq; and Deputy Speaker Ahmed Raza Qadri. PM Sharif was joined by his aide, Rana Sanaullah, and fellow senior party figure Saad Rafique.
Gillani himself had been invited to the Prime Minister’s House but was not present when the announcement was made.
What followed, according to people familiar with the meeting, was immediate and pointed pushback from Qadir and Haider, who told the prime minister they disagreed with the decision and did not intend to take part in Friday’s proceedings. A follow-up meeting convened by Sanaullah and Rafique in an effort to smooth things over broke up without resolution, according to sources.
Qadir made his objection public shortly after midnight, posting on X a promise to the “self-respecting people of Azad Kashmir” that he would not compromise their honour and dignity. He invoked Nawaz Sharif’s own political language in doing so: “Nawaz Sharif’s slogan of giving respect to the vote will be ensured,” he wrote.
By Thursday afternoon, the party had moved past the internal objections and made the nomination official. Marriyum Aurangzeb, PML-N’s central information secretary and a senior minister in Punjab, announced on X that Nawaz Sharif had finalised Gillani as the party’s candidate and instructed him to file his nomination papers for the premiership.
The dispute traces back to expectations set nearly a decade ago. Speculation that Gillani might eventually be tapped for the premier’s office had circulated since he won a reserved assembly seat on Aug. 24, but many within the party’s regional ranks anticipated a repeat of the arrangement used in 2016, when Haider was elevated to the post. That expectation appears to have been the source of Wednesday night’s friction.
Gillani will face the Pakistan Peoples Party’s Sardar Mukhtar Ahmed Abbasi in Friday’s election. The PML-N holds a commanding position in the chamber, with 32 seats including allied members, against 14 for the PPP. The Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly is formally a 53-seat body, but its working strength currently stands at 46; elections for seven seats spanning Poonch and Sudhnoti districts have not yet been held.
Assembly Secretary Amjed Latif Abbasi laid out a tightly scheduled voting day. Nomination papers are due between 9:30 and 10:30 a.m., with scrutiny to follow at 10:45 and a list of contesting candidates posted by 11. Candidates have until 11:30 a.m. to withdraw, after which the final list will be posted at noon. The assembly itself convenes at 2 p.m. for the vote, which will be conducted by a physical division process: members supporting a given candidate will file in a single line through a designated lobby, where tellers record their names, before the speaker tallies the results and declares a winner.
Plans for Gillani’s swearing-in have also shifted amid the turmoil. Qadir had earlier directed the territorial administration to prepare the High Court grounds for the ceremony. Those arrangements have now been scrapped in favour of a ceremony at the President’s House, scheduled for between 4 and 5 p.m. Friday.
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