MUZAFFARABAD: PTI has constituted a seven-member parliamentary board to decide tickets for the upcoming general elections in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).

According to a notification issued by party’s chief organizer Saifullah Khan Niyazee the other day, the parliamentary board is headed by Arshad Dad, party’s senior vice chairman and includes federal minister for Kashmir affairs Ali Ameen Gandapur, party’s regional president Barrister Sultan Mahmood, central joint secretary Khawaja Farooq Ahmed, regional additional general secretary Raja Mansoor Khan regional joint secretary Abdul Qayyum Niazi and MLA Ghulam Mohiuddin Deevan.

Mr Mahmood comes from AJK’s Mirpur division, Mr Ahmed and Mr Khan from Muzaffarabad division, Mr Niazi from Poonch division and Mr Deevan from the Pakistan based Kashmiri refugees.

All except Mr Niazi and Mr Deevan are also the members of a high-powered steering committee which was constituted by Mr Niyazee on Dec 23 last year to take decisions about inclusion of leaders and activists from other parties into the folds of the PTI.

General elections in AJK are due in June or July this year. The PTI had clinched only two seats in the last general elections in July 2016 but only in the constituencies of the Pakistan based Kashmiri refugees.

Later, it got a third seat when Mr Mahmood returned in a by-election in Mirpur in November 2019.

Published in Dawn, February 21st, 2021