MUZAFFARABAD, Azad Jammu and Kashmir: Faisal Mumtaz Rathore of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was elected the new Prime Minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Monday after a no-confidence motion removed Chaudhry Anwar-ul-Haq from office.
The no-confidence motion, submitted by the PPP, secured 36 votes in the 53-member Legislative Assembly. Two lawmakers opposed the motion and 14 members abstained from voting. The motion required 27 votes to pass.
Under the AJK Constitution, a vote of no confidence automatically counts as a vote in favour of the candidate proposed as the successor. Rathore therefore received the same 36 votes.
He becomes the 16th AJK prime minister since 1975 and the fourth to hold office under the current legislative assembly.
Monday’s session was chaired by Speaker Chaudhry Latif Akbar, who formally announced Rathore’s election after the votes were counted.
The motion followed weeks of political manoeuvring. Party sources said former prime minister Anwar-ul-Haq had been urged to resign but declined. Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari had earlier approved the move to submit the no-confidence resolution.
PPP lawmaker Qasim Majeed tabled the no-confidence resolution on Monday. It had been submitted to the Assembly Secretariat on Friday with signatures from 25 lawmakers, including 23 from the PPP and two from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
Haq attended the session and briefly exchanged greetings with Rathore before delivering a short speech and leaving the chamber.
Large screens outside the assembly building allowed crowds in Muzaffarabad to watch the proceedings live.
Rathore’s election marks the fourth change of prime minister in AJK in four years, with around six months remaining in the assembly’s term.
The PTI’s Abdul Qayyum Niazi became prime minister in August 2021 but resigned after nine months. He was replaced by Sardar Tanveer Ilyas, who was later disqualified by the AJK High Court in April 2023.
Haq then assumed office before being removed through Monday’s no-confidence vote.
