MUZAFFARABAD: The AJK Legislative Assembly could not hold the process to elect a new prime minister for a second consecutive day due to indecision of the ruling PTI and the combined opposition regarding their choice of candidates.

When the house met at 5:50pm on Saturday, more than three and a half hours after the scheduled time, cabinet member Chaudhry Akbar Ibrahim moved a motion for suspension of rules so that the session could be convened on a closed holiday today (Sunday). As the motion was approved by the eight PTI and five opposition members present at the time, Speaker Chaudhry Anwarul Haq adjourned the session until 2pm on Sunday.

Earlier on Saturday, the result of the election for one seat of the AJK Council appeared to have set the tone for the prime minister’s election.

Though the seat, which had fallen vacant due to the death of PTI’s Sardar Siab Khalid last month, was won by his son Sardar Adnan Khalid, he only secured 27 votes. This belies the numerical strength of PTI in the currently 52-member legislative assembly which stands at 32. On the other hand, rival candidate Tariq Mahmood of the PPP bagged 23 votes, three more than the opposition’s total strength. Two votes were rejected.

Interestingly, when some reporters asked former prime minister and outspoken PML-N leader Raja Farooq Haider about the additional three votes, his reply spilled the beans. “The genies have given us these three votes,” he said, adding that it was enough to comprehend the hint that who were the “genies”.

When another reporter asked whether the 20-member opposition would be able to get seven more votes for the prime minister’s election, he asserted that the “genies would get us those votes as well”.

Sources told Dawn that the ruling PTI was in hot water after AJK President Sultan Mahmood, who held sway over a group of PTI lawmakers, had refused to agree on any of the three names proposed by party chief Imran Khan for the prime ministership.

In a late-night development, a meeting of the PTI parliamentary party was in progress at a local hotel. Party sources said the meeting would be attended by all party lawmakers, including Mr Mahmood and his group. However, except for his brother-in-law Chaudhry Arshad, he and other five MLAs had abstained. “There are 26 PTI lawmakers including Mr Arshad, as well as our ally Sardar Attiqur in the meeting,” a PTI source told Dawn from the hotel past midnight. Pervez Khattak and Asad Qaiser were also attending.

Published in Dawn, April 16th, 2023