MUZAFFARABAD: A no-confidence motion against Azad Jammu and Kashmir Prime Minister Chaudhry Anwarul Haq was successful on Monday, with 36 members of the 53-member Legislative Assembly voting in favour and two opposing it. Fourteen lawmakers abstained from the vote, while the two dissenting votes came from the PTI.
Following the counting of votes, Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Latif Akbar, who presided over the session, announced PPP’s Raja Faisal Mumtaz Rathore as the new AJK prime minister. Under the AJK Constitution, a vote of no confidence against the incumbent automatically counts as a vote in favour of the proposed successor.
Rathore becomes the 16th prime minister of AJK since the introduction of the parliamentary system in 1975.
The no-confidence motion was tabled by PPP lawmaker Qasim Majeed after a resolution was submitted to the Assembly Secretariat on Friday, signed by 25 lawmakers — 23 from the PPP and two from the PML-N.
Haq attended the session, exchanged greetings with Rathore, delivered a speech, and then left the house. Citizens watched the assembly proceedings live on big screens installed outside the building.
Haq’s defeat was widely anticipated, as the PPP had the assured support of at least 29 lawmakers, two more than the number required to pass the motion. The party’s strength had grown in October when 10 PTI forward bloc lawmakers joined the PPP, bringing its numbers in the assembly to 27. On Sunday, two more PTI lawmakers — Minister for Elementary Education Deewan Ali Chughtai and Minister for Small Industries Corporation Taqdees Kausar Gillani — also joined the PPP after meeting Faryal Talpur.
With almost six months remaining in the assembly’s term, Rathore is the fourth AJK prime minister in four years. In August 2021, PTI’s Abdul Qayyum Niazi was elected premier, securing 35 votes against 15 for opposition candidate Latif Akbar. Niazi resigned nine months later and was replaced by PTI regional president Sardar Tanveer Ilyas, who was disqualified by the AJK High Court in April 2023. Chaudhry Anwarul Haq then took office until Monday’s vote.
