PML-N’s candidate Barrister Syed Iftikhar Ali Gillani was elected 17th prime minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) by getting 32 votes during the election held in the Legislative Assembly in Muzaffarabad on Friday afternoon.
His rival PPP’s Sardar Mukhtar Ahmad Abbasi could muster support of only 14 MLAs.
Barrister Gillani will take oath as prime minister at 5:00 pm at a ceremony in AJK President House in Muzaffarabad.
AJK Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Tariq Farooq will administer oath to him.
Earlier in the day, PML-N nominee for the PM slot Barrister Syed Iftikhar Ali Gillani filed his nomination papers. MLAs Raja Saqib, Dr Mustafa Bashir and other members submitted Iftikhar Gillani’s three nomination papers in the Assembly secretariat.
PPP’s Sardar Mukhtar Ahmad Abbasi, accompanied by MLA Zobia Khurshid Raja, also submitted his nomination papers in the assembly secretariat.
According to details, after detailed scrutiny of the nomination papers, the final list of the candidates will be released.
Any candidate who secures 27 votes will be the winner for the premiership, and PML-N is a majority party with 32 seats while PPP has 16 seats in the Assembly.
embers wishing to vote for a particular candidate would proceed in single file through the entrance to the designated lobby of that candidate, where tellers would record their division numbers.
The speaker will then count the votes cast through the division process and declare as prime minister the candidate securing the required majority.
The nomination of Iftikhar Gillani, who won a technocrat seat, for the PM slot has created fissures in the PML-N.
Senior PML-N AJK leader Raja Farooq Haider has refused to participate in the assembly proceedings while Shah Ghulam Qadir has also stepped aside.
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