The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly will be voting on a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Chaudhry Anwarul Haq today, with the PPP appearing poised to elevate its regiÂonal secÂretary general, Raja Faisal Mumtaz Rathore, to the coveted office.
A no-confidence resolution against Haq was submitted to the Assembly Secretariat last week on Friday. It was signed by 25 lawmakers, including 23 from the PPP and two from the PML-N, its regional president Shah Ghulam Qadir and his predecessor Raja Farooq Haider.
The requisite number
On Sunday, two PTI lawmakers, said to be from the party’s forward bloc — Minister for Elementary Education Deewan Ali Chughtai and Minister for Small Industries Corporation Taqdees Kausar Gillani — announced their decision to join the PPP after meeting Faryal Talpur, raising its own support base to 29.
In October, the PPP’s ranks in the AJK Legislative Assembly had swelled to 27 after ten lawmakers from the PTI forward bloc joined the party.
The AJK Legislative Assembly has 52 members, and to achieve a simple majority, a party requires the support of 27 members.
Under the AJK Constitution, a vote of no confidence against the sitting prime minister automatically counts as a vote in favour of the lawmaker proposed as his successor in the same resolution. So, if the motion succeeds, which seems to be the likely scenario, Rathore would stand elected as the new prime minister, fourth in the sitting assembly since its installation in 2021.
Changing PMs
With almost six months remaining in the assembly’s term, upon his election, Rathore will be the fourth prime minister in AJK in four years.
In August 2021, the PTI picked Abdul Qayyum Niazi as the premier after he was named for the slot by then-PM Imran Khan. Niazi had secured 35 votes against the joint opposition candidate Latif Akbar, who bagged only 15 votes, in the 53-seat house.
After nine months, Niazi resigned from the position and was replaced by PTI regional president Sardar Tanveer Ilyas.
In April 2023, Tanveer was disqualified by the full court bench of the AJK High Court from being a member of the legislative assembly for contempt. He was then replaced by Haq.
