The Legislative Assembly of Azad Jammu and Kashmir is likely to elect the leader of the house today(Tuesday) , who will become the next Prime Minister of AJK. On Monday the session of AJK Legislative Assembly was held. The Deputy Speaker Chaudhary Riaz Gujjar chaired the proceedings of the house. He adjourned the house till today. Allegedly the President of AJK Barrister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhary can turn the tablearound as there are some news being viral on the social media that he is leading the forward block with the ruling PTI (AJK Chapter) The Forward Block has claimed that they have reached an agreement with the opposition for election of the new prime minister. Barrister Sultan Mehmood Group has nominated two MLAs for the post of Prime Minister including Chaudhry Rasheed and Chaudhry Akhlaq.Total27 votes are required for the election of Prime Minister , and if Chaudary Sultan group and opposition would get united then they would reach to 26 members of the legislative assembly that has 52 members in total. The alone vote of Muslim Conference ‘s Chairman and ex Prime Minister Sardar Ateeq Ahmed Khan has become the great importance in case the alliance between Barrister Group and the opposition would take place At present , Barrister Sultan Mehmood group has six members of the Legislative Assembly which can play the important role of kingmaker . Any of the contestants for the election of PM . can get its support , then he can pave the way towards the Prime Minister’s office. Meanwhile three members of the opposition Chaudhary Latif Akbar, Chaudhary Yaseen and Faisal Mumtaz Rathore are also entered in therace for the office of Prime Minister. The elections of the leader of the house should be held immediately in the session of the legislature, under clause 16 of the Article 17 of the Assembly Rules. It is pertinent to mention here that the former Prime Minister AJK SardarTanvir Ilyas Khan was disqualified from his seat by the AJK High Court on the charges of contempt of court on 11th April .Now one can notice that there are many violations of the rules in the elections of Prime Minister. First abuse of law is Barrister Sultan is the incumbent President of AJK and his position demands impartiality. It will be constitutionally wrong if he as the head of state manipulates the election of the prime minister by allegedly leading the forward block of the ruling party. Secondly the session of the assembly was adjourned twice, that was summoned for the election of prime minister. But according to the rules of the assembly, the prime minister could not be elected after the adjournments of the session for two days continuously. If the elections of the Prime Minister were held against the law, then tomorrow the matter could go into litigation and the office of the Prime Minister would become controversial. There is a responsibility of the Election Commission of Azad Kashmir to take immediate notice of the irregularities that are being exercised in the election of AJK Prime Minister to protect the highest public office of the state from arguments of different hullabaloo in the time to come.
