MUZAFFARABAD: Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Prime Minister Raja Faisal Mumtaz Rathore on Sunday laid the foundation stone of a 132/11 KV grid station in Samahni at a cost of Rs1 billion, in response to a longstanding demand of the local population.

During the visit to the area, he also inaugurated a Rs680 million road project and welcomed two PML-N leaders into the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

Samahni, an administrative unit of the southern Bhimber district along the Line of Control, had come into international focus in February 2019 when Pakistan Air Force shot down an Indian aircraft in the area and captured its pilot, Abhinandan Varthaman.

Rathore was accompanied during the visit by PPP AJK President Chaudhry Mohammad Yasin, former president Haji Mohammad Yaqoob Khan, ex-prime minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas, local lawmaker and Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Ali Shan Soni and other cabinet members.

Two PML-N leaders join ruling party along with their supporters

Soni had been elected to the AJK Legislative Assembly in 2021 on a PTI ticket but joined the PPP last year along with Mr Ilyas.

At the foundation stone-laying ceremony, Chief Engineer Electricity (South) Mohammad Nazir Mughal briefed the prime minister on the project and said the grid station would have six feeders in Samahni, Choki, Jandala, Sona Bazaar, Bandala and Puna, besides a 24-kilometre double-circuit transmission line from Islamgarh to Samahni.

He said the project, spread over 32 kanals, would benefit around 145,000 people by ensuring electricity supply at standard voltage levels. He added that residents of Samahni tehsil had long been receiving electricity at less than 90 volts, resulting in inadequate power supply.

The prime minister also inaugurated the 8.2-kilometre Jandala-Peer Gali road project completed at a cost of Rs680 million.

Chief Engineer Mahmood Mumtaz Rathore, who is the premier’s elder brother, briefed him on the scheme.

PM Rathore directed officials concerned to ensure quality, speedy execution and timely completion of development projects.

Later, addressing a public reception at Tander, the prime minister welcomed former PML-N leaders retired Major Khizarur Rehman and Raja Mohammad Ayub into the PPP after they announced joining the party along with their supporters.

Rathore said the PPP was “a party of martyrs” that provided opportunities to ordinary workers to rise to key political positions.

Those who left the PPP faced political decline and eventual irrelevance, he said.

Rathore claimed his government had restored public confidence by resolving issues through democratic institutions rather than street protests.

He said that while other parties had yet to properly launch their election campaigns, the PPP was already approaching the concluding phase of its campaign due to its performance.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2026