Polls underway for 7 reserved seats in AJK Legislative Assembly today

Elections on seven reserved seats in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly are currently underway. Polling began after 10am and will continue until 1pm.

Under Article 22(1) of the AJK Constitution, the Legislative Assembly consists of 53 members, including 45 members elected directly through adult franchise and eight members chosen by directly elected representatives.

The reserved seats include five seats for women and one each for Ulema-i-Din or Mashaikh well-versed in the teachings of Islam, Jammu and Kashmir State subjects residing abroad, and technocrats and other professionals.

PML-N’s Chaudhry Abdul Rehman Arain was the only candidate to have submitted his nomination papers for the seat reserved for state subjects residing abroad. He was consequently declared elected unopposed.

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 in the region. As a result, the 38 members elected so far, representing 84.4 per cent of the directly elected membership, will participate in the reserved seat elections.

Six candidates will contest five seats reserved for women, according to the final list issued by the Election Commission on Sunday. The candidates in the fray are PML-N’s Riffat Abid, Sehrish Qamar, Maryam Idrees and Maryam Zaman, also known as Maryam Kashmiri, and PPP’s Farzana Yaqoob and Zobia Khurshid Raja.

For the seat reserved for Ulema and Mashaikh, PPP’s Hafiz Tariq Mahmood will face PML-N’s Mohammad Mazhar Saeed.

Similarly, PML-N’s Barrister Syed Iftikhar Gillani and PPP’s Sahibzada Zulfiqar Ali will contest the seat reserved for technocrats and professionals.

As the inaugural session of the incoming Legislative Assembly has already been summoned for 2pm on Monday, shortly after the announcement of the results, all newly elected members will take an oath at the hands of outgoing Speaker Chaudhry Latif Akbar, who failed to retain his seat in the elections.

AJK polls

The elections in the region, originally scheduled for July 27, were divided into phases over security concerns amid unrest in the region. The first phase was held on July 27, the second on Aug 2 and the third on Aug 10.

The third phase was originally meant to cover all of Poonch Division, which comprises 11 constituencies, including three in Bagh, one in Haveli, five in Poonch district and two in Sudhnoti district.

However, the AJK Election Commission announced that polling would only go ahead as scheduled in Bagh and Haveli because of concerns over the law and order situation.

So far, in the direct elections to 38 constituencies, the PML-N has secured 25 seats while the PPP won 12. The lone MLA-elect of the Awami Dast-o-Bazu party has also joined hands with the PML-N.

The PPP has alleged widespread rigging in the polls, with the party also ramping up its criticism of the ruling PML-N in recent days.

Last week, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said that a genuine alliance with the PML-N was not possible until their grievances regarding the AJK polls were addressed as he established formal contact with the PTI and offered to cooperate with the party in Parliament.

Speaking to the media, the PPP chairman alleged that the AJK election process had been made controversial for political interests. He alleged that the federal government’s political and administrative machinery had remained active in AJK throughout the six-phase election process, raising serious questions over its transparency.

The PPP, he said, had raised its objections before the Election Commission, parliament and other constitutional forums, but the PML-N had failed to address its concerns or engage in meaningful dialogue after the polls.

Moreover, he said the commitments and political understandings reached with the PML-N before the prime minister’s election had not been honoured. The PPP had cooperated in the wider national interest, he said, but there could be no genuine alliance with the PML-N unless the party’s concerns over the AJK elections were addressed and political commitments fulfilled.

He pointed out that the government needed PPP’s votes for several important laws, constitutional amendments and difficult bills. He said legislation could not be forced through on the basis of a majority or through coercion.

The discord between the PPP and PML-N was also apparent in the National Assembly on Aug 18, when the former managed to compel the government to virtually suspend the heavy legislative agenda for the day, which included 21 bills.

On Aug 20, when the lower house of Parliament passed two bills pertaining to the military and nuclear command structure, the PPP also objected to the manner in which the legislation was presented. While the party ultimately voted in favour of the bills, Bilawal lashed out at the government for not taking ruling allies on board.