Steep challenge

AN abundance of good fortune has landed a 46-year-old barrister, Syed Iftikhar Ali Gillani, in the hot seat. He will serve as the 17th prime minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, having been elected to the post on Friday with 30 votes from his party, the PML-N.

For now, Mr Gillani heads an incomplete legislative assembly, with seven seats representing the Poonch and Sudhnoti districts yet to be filled due to the law-and-order situation in those areas. He made note of that fact in his inaugural speech, hoping that the remainder of the electoral process will be completed soon.

He also promised employment, especially for the youth, recruitment on merit, transparency and anti-corruption measures, improvement in education and healthcare, digitising the economy, and launching a portal to address citizens’ grievances. That makes for a bold, positive start to what is bound to be a challenging assignment. Mr Gillani will remain under constant scrutiny, including from his own party.

The recent general election in AJK has remained marred by controversy. There were frequent and vociferous accusations of impropriety and alleged rigging, including from one of the PML-N’s most important allies at the centre. The AJK Election Commission, too, controversially decided it would declare voting results after each phase of the election, raising serious questions regarding electoral propriety. And then there were the large-scale and often violent protests that disrupted the process, which have yet to be conclusively addressed.

To top it off, Mr Gillani’s candidature for the premiership also drew strong resistance from within his own party. Senior PML-N figures, including the AJK chapter president Shah Ghulam Qadir and former AJK prime minister Raja Farooq Haider, openly and strongly opposed his nomination. Mr Qadir had been considered the leading contender before Mr Gillani’s entry, but the party seems to have had other plans.

Critics also pointed to the fact that Mr Gillani lost the Muzaffarabad-III constituency he had contested in the general election and was only returned to the AJK Legislative Assembly on a reserved technocrat seat. This clashed with the PML-N’s own position on ‘respecting the vote’, as the critics pointed out. Still, it appears that the party’s central leadership insisted on a younger face over the old guard in AJK. Whether that bet pays off remains to be seen.

Mr Gillani will need to prove his doubters wrong while placating those elements in AJK that resisted or boycotted the electoral process. The latter may be the most sensitive aspect of his job, given the criticality of restoring stability in the region. He has been involved in AJK politics at least since 2010, and has previously served in the AJK cabinet. Whether or not those experiences have prepared him adequately for the premiership will soon become evident.

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2026