MUZAFFARABAD: Chief Justice of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Chaudhry Mohammad Ibrahim Zia, on Tuesday administered oath to Retired Justice Abdul Rashid Sulehria as the region’s Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) for a term of five years.

Mr Sulehria was serving as senior member of the AJK Election Commission, since September 19, 2018.

The positions of senior member and member in the AJK Election Commission were created by the present government under the 13thconstitutional amendment that was passed by the joint sitting of AJK Legislative Assembly and the AJK Council on June 1, 2018.

Mr Sulehria, who had remained an AJK High Court judge, was 66 years and six months at the time of his appointment as senior member.

According to a notification issued by the AJK Law Department on Monday, Mr Sulehria has been appointed as permanent CEC for a 5-year term by the AJK president on the advice of AJK Council Chairman (prime minister of Pakistan).

Former CEC, Justice Ghulam Mustafa Mughal, had completed his 3-year term on February 19, 2019 and Mr Sulehria had assumed charge of acting CEC on the same day.

However,he was formally appointed as acting CEC on April 15, 2019 for six months, a term that expired on October 15. Ever since then the office of CEC was vacant.

Official sources told Dawn that the AJK government had sent a panel of three former judges to the AJK council chairman and of them the latter had picked Mr Sulehria.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2020