MUZAFFARABAD: Newly elected Prime Minister (PM) of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Faisal Mumtaz Rathore took oath of his office today (Tuesday).
The swearing-in ceremony was held today at the President House in Muzaffarabad.
Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, Chaudhry Latif Akbar, administered the oath to the newly elected Prime Minister.
The ceremony was attended by PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and other members of the PPP.
The no-confidence motion against outgoing AJK Prime Minister Chaudhry Anwar-ul-Haq was passed yesterday.
Faisal Mumtaz Rathore, a PPP candidate and former member of Anwar-ul-Haq’s cabinet, received 36 votes for the prime ministership, while only 2 votes were cast against him.
The PPP had claimed support from 38 members for the no-confidence motion.
Who is Faisal Rathore
Faisal Rathore is the son of former Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir Mumtaz Hussain Rathore and Begum Farhat Rathore, who herself was a member of the Azad Kashmir Legislative Assembly and the President of the PPP Women’s Wing.
His father, Mumtaz Hussain Rathore, served as a Senior Minister after the 1975 elections, Prime Minister in 1990, Leader of the Opposition in 1991, and Speaker of the Legislative Assembly in 1996.
After the death of Mumtaz Hussain Rathore, his eldest son, Masood Mumtaz Rathore, was elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly for the remaining term in 1999.
Faisal Rathore received his early education from Rawalpindi and completed his graduation from Punjab University.
Faisal Rathore first contested elections from LA-17 Haveli Kahuta in 2006. In the 2011 elections, he was elected as a member of the Legislative Assembly on a Pakistan Peoples Party ticket and served as the Minister of Education and Minister of Electricity in the cabinet of Chaudhry Abdul Majeed. In 2016, he was arrested in a political case, but was later found innocent.
On March 23, 2017, Faisal Rathore was appointed Secretary General of the Pakistan Peoples Party Azad Kashmir, and has held this position to this day.
He was elected as a member of the Legislative Assembly for the second time in the 2021 elections and played a strong opposition role.
In 2023, he was elected as the Minister for Local Government and Rural Development in the coalition government of Chaudhry Anwarul Haq and was also appointed as the head of the negotiation committee with the Awami Action Committee.
