PPP's Amjad Hussain elected as GB chief minister after members take oath

GILGIT: The Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly elected PPP’s Advocate Amjad Hussain as the chief minister on Monday, just hours after the newly elected assembly members took oath.

This came after the PPP’s Imran Nadeem Shigri and the PML-N’s Malik Kifayatur Rehman were elected as the assembly’s speaker and deputy speaker, respectively.

Nadeem announced the election schedule for the leader of the House, gave until 7:40pm to file the nomination papers and withdrawals for the position of chief minister, and adjourned the proceedings.

PPP’s Hussain filed nomination papers, but no other candidate did so for the chief minister’s position. Subsequently, Nadeem announced at 8pm that Hussain was elected as the GB CM unopposed.

Meanwhile, the GB speaker declared PML-N local president Hafeezur Rehman as the opposition leader in the house, saying the opposition members had submitted a requisition in this regard.

The assembly hall was crowded with the guests of members, journalists, politicians, visitors and VIPs, with the press galleries also filled with supporters.

PPP Central General Secretary Syed Nayyar Hussain Bukhari, Information Secretary Qamar Zaman Kaira, GB Governor Syed Mehdi Shah, and other politicians were present in the VIP galleries.

The supporters chanted slogans in favour of the winning candidates.

PPP gets speaker seat; PML-N grabs deputy role

In the morning, a total of 30 members took the oath as the first session of the sixth GB Assembly convened in Gilgit.

These included 21 lawmakers elected on general seats in the recent elections, six women members on reserved seats and three technocrats. The results for three general constituencies remain pending due to ongoing legal and electoral proceedings.

The oaths were administered by outgoing GB assembly speaker Nazir Ahmed at 10am. The speaker then adjourned the assembly proceedings till 3pm.

The session resumed at 4pm, during which the speaker announced the election schedule for the positions of speaker and deputy speaker, and gave until 5:15pm for the filing and withdrawal of nomination papers.

Ahmed also suspended the rules after getting approval from members to conduct elections for speaker, deputy speaker and leader of the House on the same day.

PPP’s Nadeem from Shigar and PML-N’s Kifayatur Rehman from Diamer had filed their nomination papers. However, no other candidates filed nomination papers for the positions and the two were elected unopposed.

The outgoing speaker administered the oath to Nadeem, who, in his remarks, thanked the party leadership and assembly members for electing him unopposed.

Nadeem then declared Kifayatur Rehman as the deputy speaker unopposed, as no other candidate had filed nomination papers, and administered the oath to him.

Nadeem was elected to the Assembly from GBA-12 Shigar, having previously been elected as a member of the Assembly in 2004 from the PML-Q, and remaining actively involved in regional politics and public affairs.

Kifayatur Rehman was elected to the Assembly from GBA-15 Diamer-I (Tangir), where he secured victory against former chief minister Haji Gulbar Khan in the recent elections.

The assembly session had been summoned for 9am on Monday for the swearing in of the newly elected representatives, and for the speaker and deputy speaker elections.

Following the June 7 elections, the PPP has won 13 seats, the PML-N nine, the Istehkam-i-Pakistan Party (IPP) six, and Majlis Wahdat-i-Muslimeen (MWM) and a PTI-backed independent one each.

The PML-N and the IPP had decided to support the PPP in the elections for the chief minister, speaker and deputy speaker. It should be mentioned that the PPP had announced that it would form a government in GB with the support of the PML-N. However, they agreed that the PML-N would sit in the opposition.