MUZAFFARABAD: Pakis­tan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) reg­ional president Barrister Sultan Mah­mood was elected President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Tuesday after he secured 34 votes against 16 by his rival Mian Abdul Waheed, a joint candidate of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

Soon after his election, Mr Mah­mood vowed to continue his mission to expose India’s ugly face before the international community and also help the government effectively serve the AJK people in accordance with the vision and guidelines of PTI chairman Imran Khan.

Under the 13th Constitu­tion Am­­endment of 2018, the Elec­toral College of the AJK president was reduced to the 53-member Legisla­tive Assembly while omitting the six elected AJK Council members from it.

In order to conduct the presidential election, the AJK president had convened a special session of the Legislative Assembly on the request of the AJK Election Commission. The proceedings of the assembly, however, started almost two hours behind the schedule due to a difference of opinion on the procedure of polling.

As the government wanted the members to go into the hall one by one to cast their votes, Opposition Leader Chaud­hry Latif Akbar raised an objection to it before Speaker Chaudhry Anwar-ul-Haq, maintaining that under the Cons­ti­tu­tion and the relevant rule thereunder, a session of the assembly was required to hold presidential election.

Agreeing to his viewpoint, the speaker presided over the session during which 50 members took part in the polling.

Barrister Mahmood got all 32 PTI votes as well as two votes of allies — Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan of the Muslim Conference (MC) and Sardar Hassan Ibrahim of the Jammu Kashmir People’s Party (JKPP).

Since PPP leader Chaudhry Muhammad Yasin has returned from two constituencies of district Kotli and is yet to take oath of office, the PPP has 10 votes at the moment. On the other hand, the PML-N has seven votes but its secretary general and former speaker Shah Ghulam Qadir abstained on Tuesday, allegedly due to a long running animosity between him and Abdul Waheed — both of whom have returned from two constituencies of Neelum valley. That was why Mr Waheed bagged 16 votes — 10 of his party and six of the PML-N.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2021