LAHORE: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Senior Minister and leader of the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI), Sirajul Haq, was elected on Sunday as the new ameer of the party replacing outgoing chief Syed Munawar Hassan, DawnNews reported.

A meeting of the party’s consultative body was held at Mansoora during which election for the post of the party chief took place.

The three contenders who participated in the polls were Sirajul Haq, outgoing party chief Syed Munawar Hassan and the party's general secretary Liaqat Baloch.

Out of 31,311 office-bearer's of the party, 25,533 people voted in which Sirajul Haq managed to secure majority of votes.

The party chief is elected for a tenure of five years.

Haq is a senior member of the party and is well-versed in several languages including Urdu, Pashto, Persian, Arabic and others.

He is renowned among his followers for his modesty and apart from serving as a Senior Minister in the KP government, was also performing the duties of the party's deputy chief since 2009.