MUZAFFARABAD:
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader and Punjab Senior Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb on Thursday announced that Barrister Iftikhar Gilani had been nominated as the party’s candidate for prime minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).
In a post on social media platform X, Aurangzeb said that Gilani had been nominated for the office of AJK prime minister following consultations within the party leadership.
Gilani, who was elected to the AJK Legislative Assembly on a technocrat seat, is expected to seek the support of PML-N lawmakers for his election as the new prime minister.
The nomination comes as the PML-N, which emerged as the largest parliamentary party in the AJK Legislative Assembly following the 2026 general elections, moves to complete the process of government formation.
The development, however, has triggered differences within the PML-N’s AJK chapter.
PML-N AJK President Shah Ghulam Qadir has reportedly expressed reservations over Gilani’s nomination and, according to party sources, has said that he would neither vote for Gilani nor attend Friday’s session of the legislative assembly convened to elect the prime minister.
Former AJK prime minister Raja Farooq Haider has also reportedly expressed reservations over the nomination.
According to party sources, Qadir and Haider conveyed their reservations during a meeting held at the Prime Minister’s House in Islamabad on Wednesday in the presence of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Qadir has maintained that the party must respect the mandate given to it by the people of AJK and uphold its political narrative of “Vote Ko Izzat Do” (respect the vote).
The PML-N AJK president is expected to consult senior party leaders and workers before announcing his future political course.
The reported differences have added an unexpected twist to the PML-N’s government-formation process in AJK, where the party had emerged as the largest parliamentary group and was expected to form the government with relative ease.
The AJK Legislative Assembly has summoned its session on Friday for the election of the new prime minister.
The nomination of Gilani and the reservations expressed by senior PML-N leaders could make the election a closely watched political contest in the parliamentary history of AJK.
According to the revised schedule, nomination papers will be filed from 9:30am to 10:30am on August 28 (today) while scrutiny of the papers will be conducted from 10:30am to 10:45am. The list of candidates will be displayed at 11am.
