The delay is linked to the PML-N’s demand for early elections, as the mandate of the current Assembly ends in July, 2 months before the elections
The internal change in Azad Jammu and Kashmir has been delayed as the Pakistan Peoples Party high command is yet to nominate an alternative House leader in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Assembly, leading to repeated delays in submitting a no-confidence motion, sources said.
Although it claims a numerical majority, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has struggled to assert its position for more than a week and a half. Sources say the decision to move the no-confidence motion is expected only after PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari returns to the country, Express News reported.
The delay is also said to be linked to the PML-N’s demand for early elections, which would prevent the PPP from gaining political advantage through internal changes.
The term of the current assembly ends in July and two months before the elections, all development works are usually stopped and the authority over appointments and transfers is revoked.
Read: Bilawal says PPP in strong position to form AJK government
Sources say the PML-N is determined to hold elections in March, meaning a new government would lose its powers by January, two months before the vote. In December and January, the PPP would fail to achieve its political objectives. The party’s insistence on completing the Assembly term is said to be one of the main reasons for the impasse.
Meanwhile, around 80% of AJK’s development budget has gone unspent, and around 2,000 immediate recruitment positions, as well as initiatives such as health cards, could offer political leverage to a new government.
Bilawal asserted that the party was in a strong position to form the government in Azad Jammu and Kashmir as the incumbent prime minister faces a no-confidence motion.
The PPP had earlier announced its intention to form the AJK government in a meeting chaired by President Asif Ali Zardari. The party’s Azad Kashmir parliamentary group also met in Islamabad to discuss the political landscape.
Learn more: PPP wins simple majority to form AJK government
On October 26, ten members of the PTI’s advanced bloc in AJK announced their decision to join the PPP, allowing the party to obtain the required majority. The next day, the PPP and PML-N agreed to move a no-confidence motion against the AJK government. PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal said his party would support the motion from the opposition benches.
However, a day later, in a surprise move, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf announced that it would dissociate itself from the opposition alliance’s no-confidence motion against the AJK prime minister and the subsequent process of electing a new prime minister, calling the move a “political game” aimed at undermining public representation.
