A no-confidence motion against Pakistan Occupied Jammu Kashmir (POJK) Prime Minister Chaudhry Anwarul Haq succeeded on November 17, with 36 members in the Legislative Assembly voting in favour of it and two against it. Of the 29 Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) members, the Speaker could not cast his vote and of the nine (09) Pakistan Muslim Leauge-N members, one female member abstained. Two Paksitan Tehreek Insaaf (PTI) legislators — regional president Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi and leader of the opposition Khawaja Farooq Ahmed — voted against the move.
It needs to be mentioned here that the chief political executive of POJK is called PM in a pompous manner. However, in reality, he has no political powers and senior officials in the Kashmir division in Islamabad easily over-rule him and keep him waiting for hours on end! The POJK PM is necessarily a rubber stamp created by Islamabad political establishment to keep a false façade of autonomy.
Outgoing PM Haq, who had arrived in the hall along with four loyalists, left along with them soon after delivering his speech. Three PTI members did not attend. This is another systematic way to undermine jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan to whose party Haq belonged at one time.
New POJK PM
One member each of the Muslim Conference and the Jammu Kashmir Peoples Party (JKPP) also abstained. Apart from them, three PTI forward bloc members — Ansar Abdali, Mazhar Saeed and deputy speaker Chaudhry Riaz — also abstained. After the votes were counted, AJK Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Latif Akbar, who was chairing the session, announced PPP’s Raja Faisal Mumtaz Rathore as the new premier.
Under the POJK Constitution, a vote of no confidence against the sitting PM automatically counts as a vote in favour of the lawmaker proposed as his successor in the same resolution. Rathore is the 16th prime minister elected in POJK since 1975, when the parliamentary form of government was introduced in the region. The newly elected PM said that the change would be felt not only in faces but in the system itself — and that this would be the true measure of success, according to a Dawn report.
It is a well established practice in POJK politics that the ruling parties do not allow any government to succeed unless aligned with them. After PTI’s Imran Khan was ousted as PM in a heavily rigged election in February 2024, it was only a matter of time that his loyalists were eased out in POJK too. Engineering splits, buying over legislators, intimidating others, are fairly common established practices in POJK politics and the latest round of musical chairs is in keeping with that pattern.
Rathore’s Announcements
Announcing several administrative measures, he said secretaries would be entitled to only one official vehicle and that the total number of secretaries would not exceed 20. He also declared the abolition of the posts of special secretary and senior additional secretary. He said the downsizing process would be carried down to the lowest tiers. Rathore announced the merger of the Education Department’s technical wing into the department and the drafting of a fresh transport policy. Until the new policy was finalised, no officer below grade 18 — except those in administration, the police and monitoring assistant engineers — would be permitted to use an official vehicle. All departments, the AJK premier said, would be required to deposit extra government vehicles into the official transport pool within a week. There would be no compromise on biometric verification. He ordered the Public Service Commission (PSC) to be reactivated and announced the cancellation of notifications for posts that had been advertised through the PSC and then withdrawn up to January 1, 2020.
The PSC would hold examinations within a month and appoint qualified candidates to those posts. The AJK premier further announced that for appointments up to grade 18 — except where recruitment was 100 per cent quota-based — at least 50 per cent of vacancies would be filled through direct recruitment. All departments were directed to implement this within a month.
Third Party Act
He said the government would fully implement the Third-Party Act in accordance with the high court’s decision. The law would be enforced not only in government departments but also in semi-government organisations and autonomous bodies, including the Bank of AJK. A uniform time-scale policy, Rathore said, would be introduced across all departments, with no time-scale increases granted above grade 19. In departments where section officer and assistant director posts existed, all admin officer positions would be abolished.
To address public grievances, the prime minister, ministers, the chief secretary, secretaries and department heads would hold open courts in every district. Complaint boxes would be installed in the offices of the prime minister and the chief secretary and opened every 15 days under their joint supervision. Judicial reforms would also be introduced, in consultation with the superior judiciary, to ensure administrative justice.
Regarding hydropower projects, the AJK PM said an agreement with the Federal government would be secured in cooperation with the PML-N leadership. Very costly electricity is provided to residents of POJK and that is a major point of discontentment against successive governments. Last year, there were massive protests in the entire POJK against the Federal government headed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Power Scenario
According to a conservative estimate, various hydropower projects in the POJK produce over 2,300 MW of power annually. The production cost per unit of electricity in POJK comes to around Rs 2.50 paise but the same power is sold to POJK residents for as much as Rs 60 per unit. It needs to be mentioned here that the entire POJK needs barely 300 MW+ for its electricity needs. However, almost the entire electricity is exported to Punjab and Sindh, leaving POJK residents languishing in darkness.
Improving internet speeds and strengthening the local government system were also listed as priorities. Referring to the needs of low-paid staff, he said that as the son of Raja Mumtaz Hussain Rathore, he felt a duty of care toward junior employees, and had therefore decided to regularise all Grade-1 employees serving in permanent posts — provided they had no pending court cases and the move did not affect anyone’s pension or legal rights. He also announced one month’s additional salary for all Grade-1 employees, to be paid from departmental development budgets.
He ordered that all driver posts be upgraded to Grade 5 and said police constables would receive facilities and allowances on par with those in Punjab. Police personnel performing duties alongside important individuals would be eligible for travel and dearness allowance. He also announced a remission of 60 days from the sentences of prisoners in all jails — except those convicted under qisas, diyat, espionage, anti-state activities or terrorism, where the remission would not apply.
Earlier, when the speaker announced the results of voting and asked Rathore to take the seat reserved for voting and asked Rathore to take the seat reserved for the leader of the house, the prime minister-elect — dressed in qameez shalwar and a black coat — shook hands with or embraced lawmakers in the front row, including the two lone PTI legislators. Before Rathore’s address, PPP regional president Chaudhry Muhammad Yasin, PML-N regional president Shah Ghulam Qadir, his predecessor Raja Farooq Haider, PTI regional president Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi and several others also spoke.
Outgoing PM Speech
Earlier still, the outgoing prime minister had delivered a speech shortly after the session began. He said he was leaving “in a dignified manner with a contented heart” and held no grievance against any of the pro no-trust lawmakers, most of whom were still members of his cabinet. “I came to thank you for relieving me of this responsibility on the one hand and to set the record straight on the other,” he said. While asserting his “commitment to the ideology of the state’s accession to Pakistan, the armed forces and the Kashmir freedom movement”, he said those who had drafted the no-trust resolution should have consulted him first.
“My best wishes are with the new government. We will play a constructive role in the opposition. If the government performs well, we will support it shoulder to shoulder. But if there is any attempt to crush the aspirations of the people, we will resort to such a severe protest that no one has ever seen before.” However, PTI’s Niazi mocked the outgoing premier’s claim, saying his tenure had witnessed “the worst-ever disgrace of the system and state institutions, including the Legislative Assembly”. Niazi also strongly criticised the votes cast in favour of the no-trust motion by PTI renegades, calling it an insult to the public mandate.
“This whole process is unlawful. We will take legal action against those who returned to the Assembly on PTI tickets and then crossed the floor,” he warned.
No-confidence motion
The no-trust motion was tabled by PPP lawmaker Qasim Majeed in the assembly on Monday after a resolution for a no-confidence vote against outgoing PM Haq was submitted to the Assembly Secretariat on Friday afternoon. The resolution was signed by 25 lawmakers, 23 from the PPP and two from the PML-N. Shortly after today’s session began, Haq also arrived in the house. He went up to Rathore and exchanged greetings with him. Haq left after delivering a speech.
Big screens were installed outside the assembly’s building, where people viewed the proceedings live.
Haq’s loss seemed certain even before the no confidence motion was tabled against him today as the PPP had the guaranteed support of at least 29 lawmakers — two more than the requisite number needed for the motion to succeed.
PPP upstages PTI
In October, the PPP’s ranks in the AJK Legislative Assembly had swelled to 27 after 10 lawmakers from the PTI forward bloc joined the party. On Sunday, two more PTI lawmakers, said to be from the party’s forward bloc — Minister for Elementary Education Deewan Ali Chughtai and Minister for Small Industries Corporation Taqdees Kausar Gillani — announced their decision to join the PPP after meeting Faryal Talpur. With almost six months remaining in the assembly’s term, Rathore is the fourth prime minister elected in AJK in four years.
In August 2021, the PTI picked Niazi as the premier after he was named for the slot by then-PM Imran Khan. Niazi had secured 35 votes against the joint opposition candidate Latif Akbar, who bagged only 15 votes, in the 53-seat house. After nine months, Niazi resigned from the position and was replaced by PTI regional president Sardar Tanveer Ilyas. In April 2023, Tanveer was disqualified by the full court bench of the AJK High Court from being a member of the legislative assembly for contempt. He was then replaced by Haq.
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