MUZAFFARABAD: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly on Monday voted out Prime Minister Chaudhry Anwar-ul-Haq through a no-confidence motion and elected PPP lawmaker Raja Faisal Mumtaz Rathore as the new leader of the House.
Speaker Chaudhry Latif Akbar presided over the session.
Thirty-six members voted in favour of Rathore.
Two members opposed the motion.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) did not join the no-confidence process.
A PTI spokesperson said any member who defied party policy would face legal action.
PTI called the entire exercise “unconstitutional and illegal”.
The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) nominated the young parliamentarian Raja Faisal Mumtaz Rathore as its candidate after submitting the motion against Anwar-ul-Haq.
The PPP already held a simple majority with support from the PML-N and defectors from a PTI forward bloc.
The PML-N announced it would vote for the motion but would not join the government.
PML-N AJK President Shah Ghulam Qadir said the party would play the role of a strong opposition.
Lawmakers submitted the no-confidence move on 14 November after Anwar-ul-Haq refused to resign.
President Asif Ali Zardari had earlier approved the plan to remove him.
The AJK Assembly has 53 members, and 27 votes are needed to elect a prime minister.
Last month, ten ministers from the PTI forward bloc joined the PPP after meeting Faryal Talpur, giving the party a clear majority.
This is the fourth prime minister to be replaced during the current five-year constitutional term.
Who is Raja Faisal Mumtaz Rathore?
Rathore belongs to a prominent political family in AJK.
He is the son of former AJK prime minister Mumtaz Hussain Rathore.
His mother, Begum Farhat Rathore, served as a member of the Legislative Assembly and headed the PPP Women’s Wing.
Rathore studied in Rawalpindi and later graduated from Punjab University.
He served as an assembly member in 2011 and held the portfolios of electricity and the AJ&K Council affairs in the PPP government of Chaudhry Abdul Majeed.
He returned to the assembly in 2021 and became PPP AJK’s secretary general.
He later joined Anwar-ul-Haq’s coalition government as minister for local government and rural development.
He also led the negotiation committee during talks with the Awami Action Committee.
Rathore enjoys support across political, military and civil society circles.
Party leaders consider him a trusted aide of Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and Faryal Talpur.
Analysts say Rathore’s calm temperament and negotiation skills are crucial as AJK faces unrest due to the Awami Action Committee’s protest movement.
Sources say he has assured party leadership and key institutions that he will work to restore stability.
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In a recent interview, Rathore said the ongoing turmoil forced the PPP to form its own government to “normalize the situation in the state”.
