Who is Syed Iftikhar Ali Gillani, the new prime minister of AJK?

MUZAFFARABAD: When the PML-N formally laun­ched its Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) chapter in Dec 2010, few people in the gathering knew the young man whose striking portrait adorned the hoardings placed around the stage.

His name, prominently displayed beneath his photograph, was Barrister Syed Iftikhar Ali Gillani.

Fifteen years later — after a political journey marked by an influential background, an unexpected electoral breakthrough, a stint in the cabinet, defeat, political uncertainty and an extraordinary run of luck — the same young politician has become AJK’s next prime minister.

Born in Muzaffarabad on July 27, 1980, Gillani received his early education in Islamabad, and later went to London, earning a bachelor’s degree from SOAS before being called to the bar at the prestigious Lincoln’s Inn in 2005, and enrolling as a lawyer in Islamabad the following year.

Politics, thanks to his family background, was hardly unfamiliar territory for him.

Gillani is the eldest of four siblings and was raised mostly by his paternal grandmother, who is remembered in Muzaffarabad for her philanthropic work and patronage of several charitable organisations. His paternal grandfather, Syed Bunyad Ali Shah Gillani, was also a known trader and transporter in the city.

His father, Syed Asif Ali Gillani, had been a friend of Raja Mumtaz Hussain Rathore, the veteran PPP leader and father of outgoing PM Faisal Mumtaz Rathore. Through that association, the senior Gillani also joined the PPP, though he had withdrawn from active politics before his son entered the arena.

An unlikely win

In the 2011 elections, then-PML-N regional president Raja Farooq Haider contested from both Muzaffarabad and Chikar, winning both seats.

When he chose to retain Chikar and vacated his Muzaffarabad seat, many PML-N leaders found themselves reluctant to contest the ensuing by-election. Conventional wisdom dictated that the city would not elect an opposition candidate.

The ruling party, meanwhile, decided not to field a local party figure. Instead, it awarded a ticket to Sardar Usman Attique, son of Muslim Conference president and former AJK PM Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan.

The choice of an “outsider” proved consequential, igniting local-versus-outsider sentiment in the constituency, which worked in the young man’s favour, allowing him to win the by-election with a comfortable margin.

He was made focal person and coordinator of the Prime Minister’s Youth Business Loan Programme, where he had the opportunity to work closely with Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz. He was also part of the PML-N’s central manifesto committee ahead of the 2013 general elections.

Gillani retained his seat in the 2016 AJK polls, when the PML-N swept to power in AJK and was inducted into the cabinet as minister for higher and school education. The portfolio was subsequently bifurcated, with higher education assigned to another minister, but he remained in the cabinet for the full five-year term.

However, his political fortunes changed dramatically in 2021 when the PML-N suffered a setback in the elections, securing only four territorial seats. Gillani was among those who lost their seats. The defeat temporarily appeared to interrupt what had until then been a remarkably smooth political ascent.

Dark horse

There was little indication ahead of the recent AJK elections that Gillani’s political fortunes were about to be revived.

Raja Farooq Haider was reportedly unhappy with him, while some of his close friends and associates also declined to support him. Combined with other factors, this contributed to his defeat in the general election.

However, the PML-N leadership considered Gillani once again for one of the seats reserved for technocrats and other professionals. While it was expected that he may be in line to receive an important ministry, it came as a surprise when his name started circulating as a candidate for the office of prime minister.

When PML-N regional secretary general Chaudhary Tariq Farooq was nominated for the office of speaker, the prevailing assumption was that regional party president Shah Ghulam Qadir would be the natural choice for AJK PM.

But on Wednesday night, PM Shehbaz Sharif summoned Speaker Tariq Farooq, Deputy Speaker Ahmed Raza Qadri, Qadir and former PM Raja Farooq Haider for a meeting. There, he conveyed the decision of PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif: Gillani would be the party’s candidate for the AJK premiership.

The decision was not universally welcomed within the regional setup, with Haider and Qadir opposing it, saying they would abstain from the election. The assembly speaker subsequently rescheduled the election from Thursday to Friday.

At 46, Gillani finds himself in the highest elected office in AJK — only five years after losing the Assembly seat that many might have assumed marked the end of his political ascent.

His journey from the smiling face on those PML-N panflexes in 2010 to the prime minister’s office is more than a conventional story of political ambition. It is also a story of timing and circumstance: an unexpected by-election victory, a cabinet berth, two electoral defeats, a return through a reserved seat and, finally, a decision made at the very top of the party.

In that sense, Gillani’s political career has been shaped as much by perseverance as by an extraordinary element of fortune.