ISLAMABAD - The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Friday nominated Barrister Khalid Khurshid as its candidate for the position of chief minister (CM) of the strategically-located Gilgit-Baltistan (GB). PTI made the announcement after formal approval of Prime Minister Imran Khan who is also the chairman of the ruling party.
In this connection, Chief Organizer PTI Saifullah Khan Nyazee called on Prime Minister Imran Khan to discuss matters of government formation in GB, said a statement issued by the Central Media Department of PTI.
In the meeting, PM gave approval of Advocate Khalid Khurshid after both the leaders developed a consensus on his name. Earlier, there was disagreement within PTI on the nomination of CM because at least PTI’s two newly-elected members of the Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly were lobbying to get the slot, the sources in the ruling party said.
The election for the CM was scheduled to be held on Saturday, however, the election was delayed because PTI took some time to finalise the name of its candidate for CM.
According to revised schedule issued by the secretary GB Assembly, the election of the chief minister GB is scheduled to be held on November 30 (Monday).
Opposition has fielded Amjad Hussain of PPP as their joint candidate for position of CM
The rival parties including Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim league-Nawaz (PML-N) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) have nominated Amjad Hussain of the PPP as their joint candidate for the position of CM.
PTI’s Khurshid was elected for the first time as member of GB Assembly from GBLA-13 (Astore-I) in the November 15 elections. He belongs to district Astore of GB and had contested the election of GB Assembly for the first time in 2009 and then in 2015 but lost the polls. He had joined the PTI in 2018 and later elected PTI’s divisional president of Diamir Division in GB. PTI has emerged as the single largest party in elections of GB and is poised to form the next government with the help of independents.
Out of total of 33 seats of new GB Legislative Assembly, 24 directly elected and nine on reserved seats, the PTI and its ally Majlis Wahdatul Muslimeen (MWM) have 23 members and other rival parties including PPP, PML-N and JUI-F have 10.
Earlier on Thursday, PTI’s Amjad Hussain Zaidi was elected speaker of the GB Legislative Assembly and Nazir Ahmed of the same party was elected deputy speaker.