Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly is expected to elect new leader of the House today (Monday) as former prime minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas was disqualified in a court contempt case.
The session of the House has already adjourned thrice as the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the opposition alliance could not finalise the candidates for the post due to political wrangling in the region.
The Imran Khan-led party is considering the names of Khawaja Farooq, Azhar Sadiq and Anwarul Haq but it is yet to reach consensus on one name.
The chance for the PTI to recapture the top slot in the AJK Assembly are slim as a forward block has been announced by AJK President Barrister Sultan Mahmood. The Barrister group has recommended the names of Chaudhry Mohammad Rasheed, Chaudhry Ikhlaq and Malik Zafar for the post.
Meanwhile, it is expected that the joint opposition would throw his weight behind the PTI’s forward block to defeat Imran Khan’s candidate. Sources said the dissidents had received green signal from the opposition but a formal statement is yet to come.
If the opposition and Sultan Mehmood group strike a deal, their count in the legislative assembly will surge to 26, while 27 votes are required to win the PM seat. In this situation, the vote of the Muslim Conference’s Sardar Ateeq Ahmed holds great importance.
On April 11, the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) High Court disqualified Tanveer Ilyas Khan from holding any public office after he was found guilty of contempt of court.
A full bench announced the verdict in a contempt notice taken after he criticised the stay orders issued by the court at a public meeting. The former premier had also appeared before the court and tendered his unconditional apology over using contemptuous remarks against the judiciary.
However, the bench turned down his apology and disqualified him as AJK prime minister and revoked his membership of the AJK assembly. He is the first AJK prime minister to have been sent packing by court.
Later, he moved the apex court of the AJK which rejected his plea to suspend the order of the region’s high court, disqualifying him in the contempt case.
Senior minister Khawaja Farooq Ahmed is currently serving as acting prime minister of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir after Sardar Tanveer Ilyas was dethroned.