Sultan Mehmood elected as AJK President

Ag APP

MUZAFFARABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) regional leader, Barrister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhary, was elected on Tuesday as the newest President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), cementing his party’s grip on the state after it formed government following the elections.

Chaudhary won after he secured 34 votes against his opponent from the joint opposition, Mian Abdul Waheed, who secured 16 votes. Chaudhary will now be sworn in on August 24 — after Sardar Masood Khan’s tenure as President ends.

The election took place during a special session convened for the purpose at the AJK Legislative Assembly, with Speaker Chaudhary Anwar Ul Haq in the chair and a total of 50 lawmakers out of 52 casting their votes.

Those who did not cast their votes were Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) lawmaker from Kotli, Chaudhry Yaseen, and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Member of Legislative Assembly and former speaker, Shah Ghulam Qadir.

“I have been elected to the most prestigious office in Azad Kashmir,” said the newly elected president, speaking to media after the polling, according to Geo News. “I have secured the highest number of votes [for a Kashmir president]. This is a reflection of the [public’s] confidence in Imran Khan,” he added.

Mehmood vowed he would never compromise on the issue of Kashmir. He reminded the media that he had served as the youngest prime minister of Azad Kashmir, adding that he would “restore prestige” to the office of the president. Barrister Sultan Mehmood started his political carrier in 1983 after he completed his education from the United Kingdom. Two years later, he was elected as the youngest member of the AJK Legislative Assembly from the platform of the Azad Muslim Conference, a party founded by his father, the late Chaudhry Noor Hussain.

Sultan Mehmood has the special honour to be elected as member of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Assembly for nine times from 1985 onward. His seat as a lawmaker will be declared vacant after he takes the oath of his office.

He served as Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s prime minister from the platform of the PPP from 1996 to 2001. He also served as minister and opposition leader in the Legislative Assembly.

The newly elected president also headed many political parties like the Jammu Kashmir Liberation League — after the Azad Muslim conference— then the Pakistan Peoples Party, Peoples Muslim League — which he himself founded and at present he is part of PTI. He joined the PTI in 2015.

Earlier this month, PTI’s Abdul Qayyum Niazi was elected to the office of the Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir, after the party’s strong showing in the recently held polls. Niazi had secured the premiership by a comfortable margin, bagging 33 votes. PPP and PML-N’s joint candidate, Chaudhry Lateef Akbar, had managed to win only 15 votes.