Muzaffarabad : The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly convened today to deliberate on the no-confidence motion aimed at Prime Minister Chaudhry Anwarul Haq.
The motion, which was submitted to the Assembly Secretariat on Friday afternoon, had the signatures of 25 lawmakers, including 23 from the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and 2 from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
The session was chaired by Speaker Chaudhry Latif Akbar and attended by members from both the treasury and opposition benches, including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Khawaja Farooq Ahmad. Notably, Prime Minister Haq and his supporters were absent from the session.
Meanwhile, the PPP has moved forward with plans to elect its AJK Secretary-General, Raja Faisal Mumtaz Rathore, as the next Prime Minister.
This development follows the defection of two PTI lawmakers—Deewan Ali Chughtai, Minister for Elementary Education, and Taqdees Kausar Gillani, Minister for Small Industries Corporation—who joined the PPP over the weekend after meeting with party leader Faryal Talpur. This bolstered the PPP’s strength to 29 members. Earlier in October, the PPP had already increased its numbers to 27 after 10 PTI lawmakers formed a forward bloc and switched allegiances. With 52 members in the assembly, a simple majority requires support from 27 lawmakers.
According to the AJK Constitution, if the no-confidence motion passes, it automatically counts as a vote of confidence for the proposed successor to the Prime Minister’s position. If the motion is successful, Raja Faisal Mumtaz Rathore is expected to become the next Prime Minister, marking the fourth leadership change in the assembly since 2021.
AJK’s political landscape has witnessed rapid turnovers in recent years. In August 2021, Abdul Qayyum Niazi of PTI was appointed as Prime Minister, securing 35 votes against the joint opposition candidate, Latif Akbar, who received 15 votes in the 53-member house.
Niazi resigned after just nine months in office, and was succeeded by PTI regional president Sardar Tanveer Ilyas, who was later disqualified by the AJK High Court in April 2023 for contempt of court, leading to the appointment of Chaudhry Anwarul Haq as Prime Minister.
