PPP’s Faisal Rathore elected as AJK PM after winning 36 votes

MUZAFFARABAD: Raja Faisal Mumtaz Rathore of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has been elected the 16th Prime Minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir after a no-confidence motion against Chaudhry Anwarul Haq succeeded on Monday.

The opposition secured an overwhelming majority, losing only two votes in the process.

No-confidence Motion succeeds against Anwarul Haq

A no-confidence motion was tabled against Prime Minister Chaudhry Anwarul Haq during the Azad Kashmir Assembly session chaired by Speaker Chaudhry Latif Akbar.

The motion was submitted by Sardar Javed Ayub, Chaudhry Qasim Majeed and others, who also proposed Faisal Mumtaz Rathore as the new Leader of the House.

A minimum of 27 votes was required for the motion to succeed. In Monday’s session, 36 members voted in favour of Rathore, while only two votes were cast against him. Anwarul Haq, who became prime minister in April 2023 with 48 votes, had chosen to face the motion rather than resign.

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PPP and PML-N lawmakers had begun arriving in Muzaffarabad ahead of the vote. The PTI Forward Bloc and other independents also traveled to the capital, taking PPP’s claimed support from 36 to 38 members.

Two more Forward Bloc members joined the motion, and the no-confidence move carried the signatures of Shah Ghulam Qadir and Raja Farooq Haider. The PML-N reiterated its demand for early elections but confirmed its support for the motion.

Strict security and swearing-in plans

Heavy security arrangements were enforced in the city. The swearing-in of the new prime minister is expected on Tuesday, with top PPP leadership likely to attend.

With this vote, Faisal Mumtaz Rathore becomes the sixteenth Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir and the fourth prime minister of the current assembly.

The PPP had earlier nominated the young parliamentarian as its candidate for Leader of the House. The party already held a simple majority, while PML-N also announced it would vote for the PPP candidate but would not join the government.

PML-N Azad Kashmir President Shah Ghulam Qadir stated that his party would serve as an effective opposition in the assembly.

The motion against Anwarul Haq was originally submitted on November 14 by Chaudhry Qasim Majeed, Sardar Javed Ayub, Malik Zafar Iqbal, Ali Shan Soni and Muhammad Rafique Nayyar.

Before this, a resignation was requested from Anwarul Haq, but he refused, prompting the PPP to formally move the motion.

Last month, President Asif Ali Zardari approved the no-confidence move. The AJK House has 53 members, with 27 needed to elect a prime minister.

A pivotal moment came on October 26, when PPP hosted a dinner at Sindh House in Islamabad attended by 27 lawmakers. On the same day, 10 ministers from the PTI Forward Bloc joined PPP after meeting Faryal Talpur, giving the party a clear majority.

Had the motion succeeded—as it now has—Anwarul Haq becomes the fourth prime minister removed during this five-year constitutional term.

Who is Faisal Mumtaz Rathore?

Raja Faisal Mumtaz Rathore, the newly elected Prime Minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, comes from one of the region’s most influential and historic political families. He is the son of former AJK PM Mumtaz Hussain Rathore, while his mother, Begum Farhat Rathore, served as a member of the AJK Legislative Assembly and as President of the PPP Women’s Wing. The Rathore family is widely regarded as one of the founding pillars of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in Azad Kashmir.

Faisal Mumtaz Rathore received his early education in Rawalpindi before completing his graduation from the University of the Punjab. His political roots run deep: his father held several key positions during his long career, serving as Senior Minister after the 1975 elections, Prime Minister in 1990, Leader of the Opposition in 1991, and Speaker of the Legislative Assembly in 1996.

Following his father’s death, his elder brother Masood Mumtaz Rathore was elected as a member of the assembly for the remainder of the term in 1999.

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Faisal Rathore first contested elections in 2006 from the Haveli Kahuta constituency. In the 2011 AJK elections, he won a seat on a PPP ticket and went on to serve as Minister for Education and Minister for Electricity in Chaudhry Abdul Majeed’s cabinet.

He did not contest the 2016 elections, instead backing party leader Khawaja Tariq Saeed under an internal agreement—although the candidate was unsuccessful.

Today, Faisal Mumtaz Rathore serves as the Secretary General of PPP Azad Kashmir, one of the most significant positions in the party’s regional leadership. He was re-elected to the AJK Legislative Assembly in 2021 and became a prominent opposition voice during a politically turbulent period.

After the change of government in 2023, he joined the coalition cabinet of Chaudhry Anwarul Haq as Minister for Local Government and Rural Development. He also led the government’s negotiation committee with the Awami Action Committee, a role that raised his political profile further.