Muzaffarabad, November 17, 2025: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly on Monday voted out Prime Minister Chaudhry Anwarul Haq through a no-confidence motion and elected Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) Raja Faisal Rathore as the new prime minister.
The no-confidence resolution was backed by 36 lawmakers, including members of the PPP and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), while two lawmakers opposed it. Rathore, the PPP’s nominee for the premiership, secured 36 votes in the subsequent election to become AJK’s 16th prime minister, and the fourth to assume the office during the tenure of the current assembly.
Others who previously held the office under the incumbent assembly include Abdul Qayyum Khan and Sardar Tanveer Ilyas Khan, in addition to Anwarul Haq.
The session was presided over by Speaker Chaudhry Latif Akbar, with lawmakers from the PPP, PML-N, and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in attendance, including the Leader of the Opposition, Khawaja Farooq Ahmad. Strict security arrangements were made around the Assembly Secretariat, Ministers’ Block, and the Prime Minister’s Secretariat.
Addressing the assembly before the vote, outgoing Prime Minister Anwarul Haq said no individual could solely be held responsible for the “destruction of the constitution and the administrative system,” adding that members of his cabinet also shared responsibility for governance shortcomings.
Haq said he was placing his remarks “on record,” expressing gratitude to the assembly for “giving him political life.” He stated that no formula for the division of Kashmir could succeed under his leadership and termed his approval of ending reserved seats for refugees as “political death.”
Highlighting the importance of national security, he warned that AJK’s political system could not survive without strong border protection. “Without Pakistan’s armed forces, nothing will remain,” he said.
He claimed that he would have supported Rathore for the prime minister’s position had elections been held and disclosed he was asked to dissolve the assembly by February 15 earlier this year — a move he resisted.
The change in government follows the PPP’s strategic moves to consolidate its position in AJK after President Asif Ali Zardari outlined the party’s political roadmap last month.
On October 26, ten PTI lawmakers joined the PPP during a meeting with Zardari’s sister Faryal Talpur at Zardari House in Islamabad, significantly boosting the party’s strength in the Legislative Assembly.
The PTI defectors included Muhammad Hussain, Chaudhry Yasir, Chaudhry Muhammad Akhlaq, Chaudhry Arshad, Chaudhry Muhammad Rasheed, Zafar Iqbal Malik, Faheem Akhtar Rabbani, Abdul Majid Khan, Muhammad Akbar Ibrahim, and Asim Sharif Butt.
The PML-N later announced its support for the no-confidence motion, though the party opted not to join the coalition government.
Rathore is expected to form his cabinet in the coming days as the PPP moves swiftly to stabilise its newly formed government in the region.
