MUZAFFARABAD: Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas will host a grand reception in honour of the newly-elected heads of the local government (LG) institutions on Wednesday.

Keeping in view the convenience of the elected office-holders, including the chairmen and vice chairmen of district council, union councils, municipal and town committees as well as mayors and deputy mayors of municipal corporations in all 10 districts of the state, Convention Centre Islamabad had been chosen as the venue of the function, said Raja Sabeel Riaz, prime minister’s political assistant for youth affairs, on Sunday.

Local government (LG) polls in Azad Kashmir were held last year after a gap of more than three decades, after prolonged proceedings on the issue in superior courts that culminated in a categorical direction by the AJK Supreme Court to the government and Election Commission in this regard.

Though the unavailability of security forces from Pakistan to maintain law and order amid a visible polarisation had apparently made the fate of these polls uncertain till the last moment, the determination of Prime Minister Ilyas to conduct the exercise did not slacken at any moment, something his political peers, including those in opposition, also concur with.

“When even his own cabinet members appeared to be in a quandary vis-à-vis LG polls, the prime minister kept on assuring people that they will be provided their long overdue right to elect their local representatives as per the vision of PTI chief Imran Khan to devolve powers to the grassroot level,” said Iftikhar Rasheed Chughtai, prime minister political adviser.

“It’s why soon after the elections of the heads and deputy heads of the LG institutions, the prime minister decided and announced that he would assemble them under one roof, without any prejudice or discrimination, to lionise and fete them in the presence of Legislative Assembly members from both sides of the divide,” he added.

Mr Chughtai said the prime minister had specially invited the AJK president and heads of all opposition parties to grace this function.

“It will be a unique event in the history of our state where all elected representatives will be in attendance regardless of their political affiliations and where they will reaffirm their commitments to serve the masses to the best of their abilities,” he said.

Earlier, this month, Prime Minister Ilyas hadannouncedthat the elected heads of the LG institutions and their deputies in AJK would have a distinctive recognition for the first time.

“In offices and ceremonies, they will wear civic regalia, comprising a robe and a medallion with official insignia of the AJK government,” he had said.

Published in Dawn, March 20th, 2023