Election on 8 reserved seats in AJK to be held on August 24

Elections for AJK reserved seats on August 24

Polling for eight reserved seats in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly—covering women, technocrats, overseas Kashmiris, and Ulema and Mashaikh—is scheduled for August 24, according to the schedule issued by the Election Commission of AJK. The vote will complete the formation of the assembly following recent general elections, as reported by The Nation.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has announced candidates for seven of the eight reserved seats. The party awarded tickets to Barrister Syed Iftikhar Ali Gillani for the technocrats' seat, Chaudhry Abdul Rehman Arain for the overseas Kashmiris' seat, and Pir Mazhar Saeed Shah for the religious scholars' seat.

Gillani has previously served as education minister for five years, having been elected to the assembly in 2011 and 2016. He lost the recent general election from Muzaffarabad city to PPP's Mukhtar Ahmed Abbasi by around 3,000 votes. Arain, a Birmingham-based businessman with roots in Kotli district, is president of the PML-N's UK chapter. Shah, from the upper belt of Neelum valley, was a member of the outgoing assembly on the same seat and belongs to the All Jammu Kashmir Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam.

Women's seats and unopposed overseas seat

Six candidates are contesting five women's reserved seats, Dawn reported. The candidates include PML-N's Riffat Abid, Sehrish Qamar, Maryam Idrees, and Maryam Zaman (also known as Maryam Kashmiri), as well as PPP's Farzana Yaqoob and Zobia Khurshid Raja. PPP candidate Shaheen Kosar Dar withdrew her nomination papers.

PML-N could potentially secure all four women's seats, but party sources said it decided to seriously contest only three, meaning the remaining two would go to the PPP. The PPP has yet to announce its candidates for those two seats. Social media reports claimed that Farzana Yaqoob and Zobia Khurshid Raja had been awarded PPP tickets, but PPP regional president Chaudhry Yasin denied that the party had awarded tickets to anyone, saying a decision would be made later at a meeting chaired by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

For the Ulema and Mashaikh seat, PPP's Hafiz Tariq Mahmood will face PML-N's Mohammad Mazhar Saeed. For the technocrat seat, PML-N's Barrister Syed Iftikhar Gillani will contest against PPP's Sahibzada Zulfiqar Ali. PML-N's Chaudhry Abdul Rehman Arain was the only candidate to submit nomination papers for the seat reserved for state subjects residing abroad and was declared elected unopposed.

PML-N meeting and government formation

Ahead of the polls, PML-N President Nawaz Sharif chaired a party meeting to discuss AJK government formation and potential candidates for the prime ministerial slot, Dawn reported. PML-N leaders Shah Ghulam Qadir and Tariq Farooq have emerged as the primary contenders for the top office. Sources said one of the two is likely to be nominated as the party's candidate for prime minister.

Meanwhile, the parliamentary party of PML-N in AJK met to finalise its strategy for the election to the seven reserved seats. The meeting, chaired by PML-N AJK president Shah Ghulam Qadir, expressed full confidence in the leadership of Nawaz Sharif, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz. A resolution adopted at the meeting reiterated commitment to the development of AJK, supremacy of the Constitution and law, and restoration of merit and justice, as well as to the ideology of accession to Pakistan and the slogan 'Kashmir Banega Pakistan'.

The resolution also expressed full support for measures taken by the Pakistan armed forces under Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir against internal and external enemies. It expressed concern over the situation in India-held Jammu and Kashmir, calling on the international community to take notice of Indian war crimes. The meeting rejected remarks about Kashmir attributed to the US ambassador to India and demanded resolution of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with UN resolutions.

Electoral context and scheduling

Under Article 22(1) of the AJK Constitution, the assembly comprises 53 members, including 45 directly elected and eight elected by the directly elected members. Elections to seven of the 45 directly elected seats (five in Poonch district and two in Sudhnoti district) could not be held due to the law and order situation, and the reserved-seat elections will be contested by the 38 directly elected members elected so far, accounting for 84.4 per cent of the total directly elected membership.

In direct elections to 38 territorial constituencies, PML-N secured 25 seats and the PPP won 12. The lone MLA-elect of the Awami Dast-o-Bazu party also joined the PML-N, taking the alliance's strength to 26.

Polling for the women's, Ulema and Mashaikh, and technocrats and professionals' seats will be held on Monday from 10am to 1pm at the Assembly Hall in Muzaffarabad. The inaugural session of the incoming Legislative Assembly has been summoned for 2pm on Monday, and all newly elected members will take an oath from outgoing Speaker Chaudhry Latif Akbar, who failed to retain his seat in the elections.

The Nation reported that political parties are finalising their candidates. The PML-N has completed interviews of women affiliated with the party seeking nomination for the women's reserved seats, with final nominations expected to be announced on August 20. The PML-N leadership has appreciated the active participation of women in political and electoral activities during the recent AJK general elections.