MUZAFFARABAD – Faisal Mumtaz Rathore becomes 16th Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir after decisive and dramatic no-confidence voting.
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) crushed opposition with staggering 36 votes in session of 38 members, leaving no doubt about who now commands the Assembly. The victory makes Rathore the fourth prime minister under the current assembly, capping off a whirlwind week of political maneuvering.
Former PM Chaudhry Anwar-ul-Haq was ousted as he refused repeated calls to resign, a refusal that ultimately triggered the PPP to pull the trigger on a no-confidence move that had already been blessed by President Asif Ali Zardari weeks earlier. His determination to cling to power only intensified the showdown, and the results were nothing short of spectacular for Kashmir region.
The turning point came on October 26, when PPP hosted high-powered political gathering at Sindh House in Islamabad, attended by 27 lawmakers. What started as a dinner transformed into a political shockwave.
That same day, ten ministers from the PTI forward bloc met senior PPP leader Faryal Talpur and switched loyalties in a dramatic defection that sent tremors through AJK’s political circles. Their mass crossover handed the PPP a clear majority, instantly shifting the balance of power and pushing Anwar-ul-Haq’s group into an irreversible decline.
Haq bloc shrank remained to just seven members after the political upheaval as PTI was left hanging on to only five seats, while the Muslim Conference and Jammu Kashmir Peoples Party held one seat each, underscoring the complete collapse of the former ruling camp.
