Who will be crowned PTI’s AJK PM if party wins elections?

ISLAMABAD: If the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) wins the July 25 general elections to the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly (AJKLA) and its two leading candidates also succeed, there will be an intense contest between them to clinch the slot of the prime minister.

On the one side is veteran Kashmiri politician Barrister Sultan Mahmood, who heads the AJK chapter of the PTI as its president. He is a strong contender for the top berth. In 2016, he had lost the election from his native Mirpur constituency. However, the winner was disqualified in 2019 and Sultan Mahmood won the by-election for the seat. He has been elected to the AJKLA eight times and had also been the prime minister when he was associated with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). He joined the PTI in 2015 when he was a PPP member of the AJKLA.

On the other side is billionaire real estate tycoon Sardar Tanveer Ilyas, who owns a famous multi-storey shopping mall cum residential complex located in the main business hub of the federal capital as well as a private housing society. He is also a special assistant to the Punjab chief minister. He has just joined the PTI, which has awarded him the ticket for an AJKLA seat from Bagh. He originally hails from Rawalakot but has chosen to contest from Bagh as he has a large following of his biradari in the area.

A set of PTI ministers, including Ali Amin Gandapur and Murad Saeed accompanied by party secretary general Aamir Mahmood Kayani, are on the campaign trail and met Sultan Mahmood in Mirpur on Friday. They assured him that he would be the next prime minister should the party win the elections. But they made it clear that the final decision will be taken by Prime Minister Imran Khan.

On the other hand, Tanveer Ilyas’s confidants present him as the sure-shot next premier of AJK. “He is not taking part in the polls to get a mere AJKLA seat but is aiming for the office of the prime minister,” one of them said on condition of anonymity as he did not want to cause any alarm in the PTI circles that are backing Sultan Mahmood.

The PTI has formally named Gandapur as the head of its poll campaign. A committee has been formed under his chairmanship to oversee and steer the electioneering. A party notification, however, said Tanveer Ilyas will be its deputy. Strangely, Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry is not part of the panel, which may be discouraging for him as it gives more importance to Tanveer Ilyas over him.

The PTI has adopted a multi-pronged strategy to show a better performance in the elections contrary to the past. Among others, it is keenly eyeing the 12 directly contested seats of refugees settled in Pakistan. In Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), its provincial governments are in a better position to play a dominant role to make its candidates successful. The number of voters is small which can be individually approached for support.

Apart from the official Gandapur-led committee, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid, originally a Kashmiri, is also spearheading the PTI campaign for the refugees’ seats as well as in the AJK areas where he has influence. He has always claimed to be a great advocate for the Kashmir cause.

The PTI has made an adjustment with the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Party of the late Sardar Khalid Ibrahim on two seats by not fielding its candidates against the smaller party. Although it has not made an election alliance with Sardar Attique’s Muslim Conference (MC), it has assured the MC that it will be part of the government if the PTI is able to form it.

A PTI leader claimed that the party has also extended an assurance to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) ‘deserters’, who are contesting as independents, that it would accept them after the elections precisely on the pattern of the Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) elections. In GB, the PTI had formed the government with the help of independents, who had joined it after their victory. They were mostly PML-N turncoats.

Like every election in Pakistan and AJK, an lavish use of money has been reported for the July 25 polls in the state. In several cases, the political parties have consciously preferred affluent candidates who can spare huge funds for the exercise.

At one stage, the GB election commission had barred federal ministers, including Gandapur and members of Pakistan’s parliament, from campaigning in the region. This was done only when the electioneering had reached its peak. In the case of AJK, no such order has so far come from the state election commission.