Nawaz calls PML-N ticket aspirants to Lahore for AJK polls

MUZAFFARABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has called party ticket aspirants for the upcoming Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) elections to Lahore on Friday, according to party sources.

More than 205 PML-N leaders and workers from 33 constituencies in AJK and 12 seats in Pakistan reserved for refugees from occupied Jammu and Kashmir have submitted applications for party tickets.

A party leader said the aspirants had been asked to appear before the parliamentary board at 11:30am at the party’s Model Town office.

Before that, the 24-member parliamentary board is scheduled to hold its first formal meeting at 11am under the chairmanship of Nawaz Sharif. The board was constituted by him on April 16 and has been assigned the task of examining and finalising candidates for the elections due in July.

Parliamentary board composition

Headed by Nawaz Sharif, the board includes Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif, and federal ministers Ahsan Iqbal, Khawaja Asif, Amir Muqam and Rana Sanaullah.

Its other members are former ministers Senator Pervaiz Rashid, Senator Anusha Rahman, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Chaudhry Barjees Tahir, Hamza Shehbaz, Marriyum Aurangzeb and retired Capt Muhammad Safdar. Former MNA Chaudhry Abid Raza was also added to the panel recently.

From AJK, the board includes the party’s regional president Shah Ghulam Qadir, former AJK prime minister Raja Farooq Haider, Mushtaq Ahmad Minhas, Chaudhry Muhammad Saeed, Chaudhry Tariq Farooq, Dr Najeeb Naqi, Barrister Iftikhar Gillani and Chaudhry Abdul Rehman Arain.

Earlier consultations

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had also formed a nine-member political committee comprising federal ministers and AJK-based leaders to help shape party policy and supervise political affairs related to the region.

In February, the committee’s AJK members held consultations with prospective candidates at divisional headquarters across the territory. Separate consultations with aspirants from among Pakistan-based Kashmiri refugees were also held in Rawalpindi.

Party sources said the committee had completed most of the preliminary work concerning prospective candidates in the 33 AJK constituencies.

The AJK elections are due in July, and the party’s parliamentary board is now set to begin the formal scrutiny process for selecting candidates.