As developments gathered momentum on the political front in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), ten legislators, all elected on PTI tickets in the July 2021 general elections, on Sunday announced that they would join the PPP, which has been eyeing the prime minister’s post in the region.
AJK PPP lawmakers also met party president Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and President Asif Ali Zardari yesterday to consider options for the removal of incumbent Prime Minister Chaudhry Anwarul Haq.
The current development has made the PPP the largest party in the AJK Legislative Assembly.
In the 53-member assembly, the PPP now has the support of 27 members, followed by the PML-N with nine, the PTI with five and two regional parties with one member each. The group of PTI renegades led by Haq has been reduced to ten members.
This has significantly increased the likelihood of the PPP becoming the ruling party.
“Yes, we are now in a comfortable position to sack incumbent Prime Minister Chaudhry Anwarul Haq and replace him with a new house leader from our ranks,” said PPP lawmaker Chaudhry Qasim Majeed. dawn.com by phone.
He confirmed that on Sunday night, ten PTI legislators had joined the PPP in joint and separate meetings with Faryal Talpur at Zardari House in Islamabad.
Among them were five legislators from AJK President Barrister Sultan Mahmood’s camp, including his son Yasir Sultan, brother-in-law Chaudhry Arshad, Chaudhry Akhlaque of Mirpur division, Chaudhry Muhammad Rasheed of Muzaffarabad division and Sardar Muhammad Hussain of Poonch division.
According to PPP leader Azhar Iqbal Baralvi, Sabiha Siddique, a female member of the president’s camp, did not immediately join the party due to reservations over the possible nomination of Haq’s successor.
Later, Zafar Iqbal Malik from Kotli also joined the PPP separately. Following in their footsteps, Abdul Majid Khan, Chaudhry Akbar Ibrahim and Asim Sharif Butt from refugee constituencies as well as Sardar Faheem Rabbani from Poonch division jointly met in Talpur to announce their inclusion in the PPP.
The ten lawmakers are part of Haq’s cabinet. Among them, only the three refugee lawmakers had earlier announced their resignation from the cabinet, although no official notification regarding their resignation had been issued.
PPP regional president Chaudhry Muhammad Yasin was not present in any of these meetings with Talpur.
Majeed said the PPP parliamentary party held two meetings on Saturday – the first with Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, where it was unanimously decided to oust Haq. The team later met President Asif Ali Zardari to inform him of their decision.
Majeed stated that more legislators were likely to join the PPP in the next two to three days.
Meanwhile, the PML-N has announced that it will take up seats in the opposition seats.
“We will not be part of the government formation process and will sit in the opposition seats,” said the party’s regional president, Shah Ghulam Qadir.
Majeed also confirmed that President Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif were in touch regarding the ongoing political developments.
However, he said he did not know who would succeed Haq as prime minister. “This decision corresponds to President Zardari and the president of the party,” he added.
On the other hand, Chaudhry Azhar Sadiq, minister of public works and communications and a close confidant of Prime Minister Haq, said the prime minister had no plans to dissolve the assembly.
“Although the Constitution empowers him to do so, he will not take that step,” he said. dawn.com. “He [Haq] He has consistently maintained that if his opponents rally 27 lawmakers, he will resign. If they have the necessary numbers, they can present the motion of censure; “We will face it.”
However, Sadiq added, “there are a lot of slips between the cup and the lip.”
All PPP members were scheduled to gather at Sindh House in Islamabad on Sunday night to demonstrate their strength.
