MUZAFFARABAD: Mr Abdul Hamid Khan today [Oct 7] resigned as President of the Azad Government of Jammu and Kashmir, clearing the way for the formation of an interim government pending fresh elections.

The interim government, to be headed by a non-party man, is to be installed here tomorrow. It will include three ministers, or advisers, who will be the nominees of the three major political parties of Azad Kashmir.

Announcing his resignation from the presi­d­en­tship as well as from the chairmanship of the Azad Kashmir State Council, Mr Abdul Hamid Khan said in a statement that the time had come for framing a constitution for Jammu and Kash­mir so that the state people, under the leadership of a reconstituted government, could “determine and implement measures necessary to secure their right of self-determination”. He said he was laying down the two offices to “facilitate the achievement of this objective.”

The three major Kashmiri political parties who formed an alliance a year ago on the basis of a four-point programme had already forwarded a list of their nominees to the Pakistan Government. — Agency

Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2019