PML-N nominee Dr Muhammad Najeeb Naqi has been elected the 25th president of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) for a five-year term after securing 32 votes in the presidential election.
Dr Naqi defeated Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) candidate Chaudhry Latif Akbar, who received 13 votes. The election was held at the AJK Legislative Assembly in Muzaffarabad on Thursday (today).
Polling took place from 10am to 1pm. The counting of votes started immediately after polling ended.
The 46 member assembly currently has 46 occupied seats. PML-N had 31 lawmakers excluding Speaker Chaudhry Tariq Farooq, while PPP had 14 members, before the election.
Moreover, the presidential office had remained vacant since January following the death of former AJK president Barrister Sultan Mahmood.
Both Dr Naqi and Chaudhry Latif Akbar had submitted their nomination papers ahead of the September 24 election. Their papers were accepted after scrutiny by Chief Election Commissioner retired Justice Ghulam Mustafa Mughal.
Dr Naqi was proposed by former AJK prime minister Raja Farooq Haider and seconded by Prime Minister Iftikhar Gillani. PPP’s Latif Akbar was proposed by former minister Deevan Ali Khan Chughtai and seconded by legislator Sardar Mukhtar Ahmed Abbasi.
Who is Dr Najeeb Naqi?
Dr Muhammad Najeeb Naqi is a senior PML-N politician from Pallandri in Sudhnoti district. He entered politics in the early 1990s and has served several terms in the AJK Legislative Assembly.
He served as parliamentary secretary for health, planning and development, from 1991 to 1996. He later became a member of the AJK Council from 2001 to 2006.
Dr Naqi served as minister for health, education and information technology during 2006 and 2011. He also held several important portfolios, including health, finance, planning and development.
He was again elected from the LA-21 Pallandri-Sudhnoti constituency in the 2026 AJK elections. Additionally, Dr Naqi has also served as chairman of the AJK Assembly’s Standing Committee on Health and as vice president of PML-N AJK.