Bilawal names Advocate Amjad Hussain for GB chief minister’s post

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Sunday announced Advocate Amjad Hussain as the party’s nominee for the post of Gilgit-Baltistan chief minister, a day after the party said it would form the regional government with the support of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

According to an official statement shared on X, Bilawal decided to nominate the PPP’s Gilgit-Baltistan president for the top slot in the region. The statement said the PPP chairman also spoke to Hussain by telephone and issued directions regarding the formation of the government as well as the implementation of the constitutional and economic rights of the people.

Hussain has served as PPP Gilgit-Baltistan president since 2016 and recently won a seat from GBA-I in the general elections. He is described as a prominent lawyer with a strong grasp of the region’s legal and constitutional matters.

His previous public offices include membership of the Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly from 2020 to 2025 and the Gilgit-Baltistan Council from 2009 to 2014. In the 2020 Gilgit-Baltistan general elections, he contested from two constituencies — GBA-I Gilgit and GBA-IV Nagar — while the PPP was in opposition at the federal level. He won both seats but later vacated the one from Nagar.

Hussain also served as opposition leader in the Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly from 2020 to 2023 during the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led government of Khalid Khurshid. He was the mover of the Gilgit-Baltistan Land Reforms Act, passed by the assembly in 2025, which sought to make locals landowners.

His political campaign centred on Haq-e-Hukumat (Right to Rule) and Haq-e-Malkiat (Right to Ownership), a movement he began in 2016 and which later became part of the PPP’s election manifesto. He has also been an advocate of provincial status for Gilgit-Baltistan.