MUZAFFARABAD: Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Prime Minister Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi on Thursday tendered resignation from his office apparently to defuse the move by his Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) parliamentary party to replace him with regional president Sardar Tanveer Ilyas through a vote of no confidence.

Dr Asif Hussain Shah, secretary presidential affairs, confirmed to Dawn that President Barrister Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry had received and accepted the resignation and forwarded it to the chief secretary for issuance of a formal notification in this regard.

Mr Niazi was to face a vote of no confidence on Friday after 25 members of the PTI parliamentary party had moved a resolution to this effect against him on Tuesday under Article 18 of the AJK Constitution.

The movers had charged him with “loss of the trust of the parliamentary party, failure to highlight Kashmir issue and implement party manifesto in addition to bad governance, nepotism and violation of merit.”

Since the AJK Constitution makes it mandatory for the movers of a no-trust resolution to name a successor to the prime minister, they had nominated the party’s regional president Ilyas to succeed Mr Niazi.

A session for voting on the no-trust move is summoned by speaker under Article 27 (4) not earlier than three and not later than seven days after the receipt of the resolution.

After the approval of the resolution by the majority of the total membership, the successor is deemed to have been elected as prime minister.

Earlier in the day, Mr Niazi removed four ministers and an adviser, accusing them in his summary of “misconduct, wrongdoings and malpractices”.

Meanwhile, speaking at a presser at Kashmir House Islamabad, Mr Niazi regretted that “baseless allegations” had been levelled against him in the no-trust resolution. “My sin is that neither I committed corruption nor did I allow anyone else to do that…I regret the hypocrisy of those who backstabbed me,” he said while waving a copy of the no-trust resolution. “I first sent my resignation to the party chairman Imran Khan and then to the president after a lapse of one hour.”

Published in Dawn, April 15th, 2022