MUZAFFARABAD    -    The full court bench of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) High Court on Tuesday disqualified Prime Minister Sardar Tan­veer Ilyas from be­ing a member of the legislative as­sembly for contempt of court.

On Monday last, the AJK Supreme Court and High Court had separate­ly summoned Ilyas on Tuesday to explain his position with regard to his derogatory remarks about the superior judiciary in his speech­es at public meetings.

At a function in Islamabad over the weekend, Ilyas had in­directly blamed the judiciary for affecting the functioning of his government and interfering in the domain of the executive through the grant of stay orders.

The AJK premier had claimed that a multi-million Saudi-fund­ed education project was incom­plete due to a court order. He also spoke against the court or­ders to reopen tobacco factories that were involved in tax evasion worth billions. On Tuesday, Jus­tice Chaudhry Khalid Rasheed read out the judgement of the AJK High Court full bench, sentenc­ing the AJK premier till the ris­ing of the court. After the verdict was announced, Ilyas — who was supposed to appear before the AJK apex court drove straight to the Prime Minister’s House along with members of his cabinet.

Producing the clipping of the premier’s speech in its order, the AJK court said that the mat­ter was discussed in a meeting of the judges’ council in view of its seriousness and it was unan­imously decided it could not be overlooked because the dignity and authority of the courts was on stake and nobody could be allowed to undermine it.

With the PM’s disqualifica­tion, the entire AJK cabinet now stands dissolved. The move comes amid heightened polit­ical tensions across Pakistan due to the crisis relating to elec­tions in Punjab and Khyber-Pa­khtunkhwa after assemblies in both provinces were dissolved.

Ilyas, affiliated with Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), served as premier of AJK for less than a year. He was elected unopposed as the 14th prime minister of the region on April 18, 2022.

After the resignation of Abdul Qayyum Khan Niazi as AJK pre­mier, Illyas had submitted nom­ination papers on behalf of PTI which were declared valid by the secretary assembly.

PTI Chairman Imran Khan nominated Ilyas as the par­ty’s candidate for prime min­ister’s office while the PPP and the PML-N had jointly fielded Chaudhry Yasin. The united op­position boycotted the session for the election of the prime minister, leaving no candidate in the race against Ilyas wherein he secured 33 votes in his favour.

The first prime minister of AJK, Khan Abdul Hameed Khan, was elected on July 5, 1975. AJK has had a parliamentary sys­tem since 1985. Sardar Sikan­dar Hayat, Sardar Atiq Ahmad Khan and Raja Farooq Haider Khan had twice held the office of AJK PM.