PML-N announces tickets for 7 reserved AJK seats

MUZAFFARABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Wednesday announced its candidates for seven of the eight reserved seats in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly.

The special seats, for which elections have been scheduled for August 24, comprise five for women and one each for Ulema-i-Din or Mashaikh, Jammu and Kashmir state subjects residing abroad, and technocrats and other professionals.

Polls are being held in three phases amid unrest in the region. So far, in the direct elections to 38 territorial constituencies, the PML-N has secured 25 seats while the PPP won 12. The lone MLA-elect of the Awami Dast-o-Bazu party also joined hands with the PML-N, taking the alliance’s strength to 26.

In its Wednesday announcement, the PML-N awarded Barrister Syed Iftikhar Ali Gillani the ticket for the technocrats and other professionals’ seat, Chaudhry Abdul Rehman Arain for the overseas Kashmiris’ seat and Pir Mazhar Saeed Shah for the religious scholars’ seat.

Gillani had previously been elected to the assembly in 2011 and 2016 and subsequently served as education minister for five years. He contested the recent general election from Muzaffarabad city but lost 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. He was also a member of the party’s high-profile political committee that had undertaken preparatory work for the selection of candidates well before the general elections.

Shah, who belongs to the upper belt of Neelum valley, was also a member of the outgoing assembly on the same reserved seat. He belongs to the All Jammu Kashmir Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam and had supported PML-N regional president Shah Ghulam Qadir in the general elections.

With its strength in the assembly, the PML-N is certain to secure all three of these seats.

Meanwhile, for the women’s seats, the party awarded tickets to Sehrish Qamar of Mang in Sudhnoti district, who is chairperson of its Women’s Wing; Maryam Zaman, alias Maryam Kashmiri, of Kutla in Muzaffarabad district, who is president of its Women’s Wing; Maryam Idrees of Chakswari in Mirpur district; and Riffat Abid of Dadyal in Mirpur district.

Qamar had also been elected to the assembly on a women’s reserved seat on a PML-N ticket for the 2016-21 term. Abid is the mother of a PML-N leader who had thrown his support behind the party’s MLA-elect Chaudhry Azhar Sadiq.

Although the PML-N could potentially secure all four women’s seats, party sources said it had decided to seriously contest only three of them, meaning the remaining two would go to the PPP.

The PPP has yet to announce its candidates for the two women’s seats it is expected to secure.

Punjab Senior Minister and PML-N leader Marriyum Aurangzeb also shared the candidates’ names on social media.

Meanwhile, social media reports claimed that former minister Farzana Yaqoob, daughter of former AJK president Sardar Yaqoob Khan, from Poonch district and Zobia Khurshid Raja, a relatively little-known worker from Bagh district, had been awarded PPP tickets.

However, PPP regional president and MLA-elect Chaudhry Yasin denied that the party had so far awarded tickets to anyone.

“A decision on tickets will be taken later tonight at a meeting to be presided over by party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari,” he said.

The AJK Election Commission had announced on Sunday that the polling for reserved seats will be held in the AJK Assembly on Aug 24 from 10am to 1pm.

Under Article 22(1) of the AJK Constitution, the assembly comprises 53 members, including 45 members elected directly on the basis of adult franchise and eight members elected by the directly elected members.

However, 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. Consequently, 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.