No-Confidence motion tabled in AJK Assembly against PM Anwarul Haq

MUZAFFARABAD: A no-confidence motion has been tabled in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly against Prime Minister Chaudhry Anwarul Haq.

He is likely to be replaced by Pakistan People’s Party nominee Faisal Mumtaz Rathore. Rathore will need 27 votes in order to be elected the new prime minister of AJK. The PPP claims it has the support of 45 members in the AJK Legislative Assembly.

If the motion succeeds, Rathore will become the 16th Prime Minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and the fourth under the current assembly.

The motion was moved by lawmaker Qasim Majeed. Debate on the motion is underway in AJK Legislative Assembly, according to media reports.

Addressing the House, Prime Minister Anwarul Haq said that if his colleagues had consulted him earlier, “perhaps there would have been no need for this motion.”

He said he had told them that if they mustered 27 members, he would resign. Anwarul Haq said that once the count reached 27, “we waited to see who the groom would be,” noting that he held no grievances against anyone.

Earlier, Faisal Rathore resigned as Minister of AJK Local Government and Rural Development and submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Anwarul Haq.

Who is Faisal Rathore?

Faisal Mumtaz Rathore was born on April 11, 1978 in Rawalpindi. Faisal Mumtaz Rathore is a political leader from Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), and a senior figure in the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). He belongs to one of the most influential political families in AJK.

He is the son of Mumtaz Hussain Rathore, who was a major political figure in the country and served as Senior Minister in 1975, Prime Minister of AJK in 1990, Leader of the Opposition in 1991, and Speaker of the Legislative Assembly in 1996.

He was unanimously elected as Secretary General of PPP AJK on March 23, 2017 and continues in that position. He was re-elected as MLA in 2021 and actively participated in the opposition. In 2023, he was made Minister for Local Government and Rural Development in the coalition government of Chaudhry Anwarul Haq. He has also served as head of the PPP negotiation committee with the Awami Action Committee.