Islamabad: The new legislative assembly in Pakistan-administered Kashmir on Sunday elected Farooq Haider Khan of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) premier of the state.
He secured 38 votes in the 49-member assembly that held its first session in Muzaffarabad, capital of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), the official name for the Islamabad-administered part of the disputed Himalayan region, of which India holds the major portion.
A joint candidate of Muslim Conference and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Ghulam Mohiuddin Dewan and candidate Chaudhry Mohammad Yaseen, of Pakistan People’s Party, got five votes each.
The oath-taking ceremony of the AJK premier was to be held in Muzaffarabad later in the day.
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is also chief of PML-N, congratulated the AJK chief executive on his election.
Sharif said that the PML-N government in AJK would support the people of “Indian-occupied Kashmir in their just and legitimate struggle for self-determination.”
The AJK assembly passed a resolution that strongly condemned “the terrorism by Indian forces against peaceful innocent Kashmiris struggling for their internationally recognised rights.”
The resolution urged United Nation[s] and [the] international community to take serious notice of “Indian brutalities against Kashmiri people.”
It demanded that a fact-finding commission be sent to the Indian-administered part of Kashmir to assess the situation there.
