Azad Kashmir legislators take oath of office

A APP

By News Desk

MUZAFFARABAD: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly gathered here on Tuesday, with outgoing speaker Shah Ghulam Qadir in the chair, during which 48 newly elected members were sworn in.

Outgoing Speaker Shah Ghulam Qadir administered the oath to the legislators after the notification of their election was read out by the Secretary Assembly.

Three newly elected members were not sworn in — outgoing opposition leader and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) member Chaudhary Yaseen, who has been elected on two seats; Muslim Conference leader Sardar Attique, who was not present in the House; and PPP’s Chaudhry Javed Budhanvi, who is said to be sick with Covid-19.

After the lawmakers were sworn in, the Speaker adjourned the session to file nomination papers for the election of the new speaker and deputy speaker. The election for both the offices was to take place on Tuesday evening.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had nominated former speaker Chaudhary Anwar-ul-Haq for the office of speaker and Chaudhry Riaz Gujjar for the office of deputy speaker, while opposition parties nominated PPP’s Faisal Rathore for speaker and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MP elected on a reserved seat, Ms Nasaran Abbasi, for the office of deputy speaker.

Anwar-ul-Haq and Riaz Gujjar won the office of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker respectively, both securing 32 votes, according to Geo News. Anwar-ul-Haq was subsequently sworn in by his predecessor Shah Ghulam Qadir. Gujjar was sworn in afterwards.

The leader of the House — the prime minister — will be elected today (Wednesday), who will take the oath of office in the evening. Meanwhile, former AJK prime minister Raja Farooq Haider Khan, who was also sworn in as a lawmaker on Tuesday, alleged the federal government rigged the election and said PML-N’s lawmakers took the oath of office “in protest”.

In a conversation with reporters, he said the party would shortly be issuing a white paper against the alleged rigging and would “deliver the facts to the public”.

He also said he and allied lawmakers would be protesting the alleged rigging with the people.

A day earlier, the PTI secured a total of 32 seats out of 53 in the AJK Assembly after elections on reserved seats concluded. Polling on three seats reserved for technocrat, overseas Kashmiris and Ulema was conducted on Monday and the PTI won all three seats securing 27 votes for each candidate.