Barrister Iftikhar Gilani elected 17th AJK prime minister
Gilani secures 30 votes against PPP candidate Mukhtar Ahmed Abbasi, who received 14 votes in the AJK Assembly election
Barrister Syed Iftikhar Ali Gilani was chosen as the 17th prime minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Friday during an election at the AJK Legislative Assembly in Muzaffarabad. Gilani secured 30 votes to defeat Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) candidate Sardar Mukhtar Ahmed Abbasi, who garnered 14 votes.
Gilani, a qualified barrister from Britain, began his electoral journey in 2011 and has served as a member of the AJK Legislative Assembly since then. He previously held the position of education minister for five years under a PML-N government in AJK. Despite contesting the 2021 and 2026 elections, Gilani failed to secure a seat this time. However, he was later inducted into the AJK Legislative Assembly as a technocrat.
PML-N leader Marriyum Aurangzeb had nominated Gilani as the party's candidate for the AJK prime minister's office the day before the election. The development led to disagreements within the PML-N's AJK chapter, with President Shah Ghulam Qadir declining to vote for or attend the assembly session that elected the prime minister.
Former AJK prime minister Raja Farooq Haider also expressed reservations about Gilani's nomination. The PML-N remains the largest parliamentary group in the 53-member AJK Legislative Assembly after the 2026 general elections.
Written by urgent.news from The Express Tribune - Pakistan's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
