Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Barrister Syed Iftikhar Ali Gilani has been elected as Prime Minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) today.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) nominee Barrister Iftikhar Gilani was elected as the 17th Prime Minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), defeating Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) candidate Sardar Mukhtar Ahmed Khan Abbasi.
The oath-taking ceremony of the newly elected prime minister will be held at the AJK President House in Muzaffarabad.
A total of 44 votes were cast out of 46 members of the AJK Legislative Assembly. Barrister Iftikhar Gilani secured 30 votes, while Sardar Mukhtar Ahmed Abbasi received 14 votes.
Who is Barrister Iftikhar Gilani?
Barrister Iftikhar Gilani is a veteran PML-N politician in Azad Kashmir. He was elected to the AJK Legislative Assembly in 2011 and again in 2016. Following the 2016 elections, he was appointed as AJK’s education minister.
In the 2026 general elections, Gilani contested the LA-29 Muzaffarabad-III constituency as a PML-N candidate but lost to PPP candidate Mukhtar Ahmed Abbasi.
He later contested the technocrat seat in the elections for reserved seats as a PML-N candidate. In the election held on August 24, Gilani secured 26 votes to defeat PPP candidate Sahibzada Zulfiqar Ali, who received 12 votes.
His victory on the reserved seat enabled him to return to the AJK Legislative Assembly just weeks after losing the general election. He was subsequently nominated by the PML-N for the office of prime minister and has now been elected to the position.
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