• Ceremony to be rescheduled as Bilawal due to attend Khamenei’s funeral this week
• CM-elect seeks additional federal funds to tackle climate crisis
• Urges provisional provincial status for GB to reinforce Kashmir stance

GILGIT: The swearing-in ceremony of newly elected Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Minister Advocate Amjad Hussain, originally scheduled for July 1, has been postponed due to the unavailability of PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari.

The PPP chief is expected to attend the funeral rites of former Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the coming days, according to the party.

Elected unopposed as the Leader of the House on June 22, Advocate Amjad Hussain was scheduled to take the oath of office on July 1.

According to an official statement issued by the PPP’s local chapter on Sunday, the decision to postpone the ceremony was taken in view of the PPP chairman’s engagements.

A new date and time for the oath-taking ceremony will be announced later, the statement added.

Speaking about the challenges ahead, CM-elect Hussain told Dawn on Sunday that the region was facing the devastating impacts of climate change amid the current financial crisis. He said the GB government would seek additional funds from the federal government to tackle the issue.

He said the GB government would ensure the effective utilisation of public funds for the welfare of the local people. His government would set its priorities and begin work after the oath-taking ceremony, he added.

Replying to a question, the newly elected chief minister said the delay in passing the budget for the current fiscal year in June would not be an issue.

CM-elect Hussain, who is also the PPP’s GB chapter president, said his government would be people-friendly and would leave no stone unturned for the betterment of the people of Gilgit-Baltistan. He said the PPP had contested the GB elections on three slogans: Right to Rule, Right to Land Ownership, and Right to Employment. “These slogans countered the narratives of religious and nationalist parties,” he remarked.

He said the PPP had proposed provisional provincial status for GB in response to the Modi government’s decision to revoke the special status of India-held Kashmir in 2019. Granting GB provisional provincial status, he said, would counter India’s move.

According to him, granting provisional provincial status to GB and providing representation to its people in the Senate and National Assembly until a plebiscite is held in Kashmir would safeguard Pakistan’s stance on the Kashmir issue.

He recalled that the PPP chairman’s recent speech in the National Assembly on the rights of the people of Gilgit-Baltistan had highlighted this aspect.

The CM-elect said the PTI government had sabotaged the proposed 26th Constitutional Amendment in 2022, which sought to declare GB a provisional province of Pakistan. He said it was high time for the federal government to respond to the Modi government’s move in India-held Kashmir, adding that declaring GB a provisional province was the appropriate response.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2026