MUZAFFARABAD: In a tug-of-war within the ruling PTI in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), its president Sardar Tanveer Ilyas emerged victorious on Monday after his nominee for the AJK Council seat was preferred over another candidate backed by Prime Minister Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi.

Polling for the two council seats was held in the Assembly building and of the polled 50 votes Sardar Seyab Khalid of PTI secured 31 and Mohammad Hanif, the joint candidate of PPP and PML-N, secured 19 votes.

The 32-member PTI had awarded its tickets to Mr Khalid and Asghar Qureshi, hoping against the hope that 12-member PPP and seven-member PML-N would contest separately thus paving the way for it to get its both nominees elected.

However, after the opposition parties agreed to field a joint candidate, the PTI was left with no option but to pick one of the two ticket holders to clinch its share of one seat.

PTI sources said though PM Niazi and a federal minister were in favour of Mr Qureshi, majority of the PTI parliamentary party was however opposed to his nomination.

On Sunday night, hardly 14 legislators turned up at the PTI parliamentary party meeting summoned by Mr Niazi while on the other hand the attendance at a similar meeting summoned by Mr Ilyas on Monday morning were no less than 21.

Insiders told Dawn that the majority of members were unhappy at Mr Qureshi’s nomination.

During the course of polling, PM Niazi kept on asking party members to vote for Mr Qureshi, claiming that PM Khan and Federal Minister Asad Umar had asked him on phone to convey the same message to them. However, his repeated insistence cut no ice with the legislators, following which he had to agree to the candidature of Mr Khalid.

Published in Dawn, January 25th, 2022