12 file nominations for AJK reserved seats
MUZAFFARABAD: Twelve people submitted their nomination papers on Thursday for eight reserved seats of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly. The nomination papers were submitted to AJK Election Commission Secretary Raja Mohammad Shakeel, who has been designated as the returning officer for the elections. According to the list of validly nominated candidates issued by the returning…
MUZAFFARABAD: On Thursday, twelve individuals submitted their nomination papers for eight reserved seats in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly. These nominees presented their papers to Raja Mohammad Shakeel, the returning officer for the elections. The commission has confirmed that seven women — four from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and three from the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) — are vying for the five seats set aside for women.
The PML-N candidates are Riffat Abid, Maryam Zaman, Sehrish Qamar, and Maryam Idrees. The PPP has put forward Farzana Yaqoob, Shaheen Kosar Dar, and Zobia Khurshid Raja for these positions. For the seat specifically designated for religious scholars, Pir Mazhar Saeed from the PML-N and Hafiz Tariq Mahmood from the PPP have both submitted their nomination papers.
Similarly, Barrister Syed Iftikhar Gillani from the PML-N and Sahibzada Zulfiqar Ali from the PPP are competing for the seat assigned to technocrats and other professionals. However, in the seat reserved for overseas Kashmiris, there was no contestant from the PPP; Chaudhry Abdul Rehman Arain, the PML-N nominee, won that seat without opposition.
The commission has announced that appeals against its decisions on the acceptance or rejection of the nomination papers can be lodged on August 21, from 9am to noon, with the AJK Election Commission. Chief Election Commissioner retired Justice Ghulam Mustafa Mughal will preside over the hearing sessions at his office on August 22, from 9am to noon.
The final verdicts are set to be released on August 23, between 1pm and 2pm. Candidates have the option to withdraw their nomination papers until 2pm on August 23. Elections through a secret ballot are scheduled to take place in the AJK Legislative Assembly on August 24, from 10am to 1pm. This information was published in Dawn on August 21st, 2026.
Written by urgent.news from Dawn - Pakistan's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
