PML-N Announces Candidates for 37 of 45 AJK Assembly Seats, Excludes Some Veterans

MUZAFFARABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) (PML-N) announced Thursday its candidates for 37 of the 45 constituencies in the Azad Jammu & Kashmir Legislative Assembly. The party, led by president Nawaz Sharif, chose to field several younger candidates while denying tickets to a number of seasoned politicians.

The list, endorsed by Sharif, left five territorial seats undecided – LA‑1 Mirpur‑I (Dadyal), LA‑8 Kotli‑I (Raj Mahal), LA‑18 Poonch‑I (Abbaspur), LA‑22 Poonch‑V (Tain) and LA‑28 Muzaffarabad‑II (Lachhrat). The refugee seats LA‑36 Jammu‑III, LA‑41 Valley‑II and LA‑45 Valley‑VI remain to be filled.

PML-N AJK president and opposition leader Shah Ghulam Qadir received tickets for both Neelum Valley seats, while party secretary general Chaudhry Tariq Farooq was nominated in his long‑serving seat, LA‑7 Bhimber‑III.

Former Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider will contest this time only from his native LA‑32 Muzaffarabad‑VI, filing his nomination in Hattian Bala on Friday.

527 nominations filed for AJK elections as deadline extended

Veteran politician Malik Mohammad Nawaz, who won seven consecutive elections for the Muslim Conference from 1990 to 2016, was not given a ticket. PML-N instead nominated young party leader Fateh Mahmoodul Hassan for LA‑10 Kotli‑III.

Sardar Farooq Sikandar, eldest son of former AJK president and prime minister Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan, also sought the LA‑10 seat, having previously targeted his family’s stronghold, LA‑9 Kotli‑II (Nakyal). The party awarded that ticket to his young cousin, Sardar Umair Naeem, vice chairman of the Kotli District Council.

Nawaz told Dawn that the denial was painful but he would respect the party’s decision due to his belief in discipline. He added, “If the party nominates me from Raj Mahal, I will contest and, God willing, win.”

In Muzaffarabad’s Khawra constituency, veteran PML-N leader and former minister Raja Abdul Qayyum Khan was denied a ticket. The party chose Raja Saqib Majeed, a recent addition to the party, instead.

Other seats saw a shift toward younger candidates, including Engr Mohsin Aziz from Haveli, Ayaz Nisar from Khuiratta, Raja Muhammad Asif from Sehnsa (Kotli), and Azeem Bakhsh Chaudhry from Chakswari (Mirpur).

The PML-N also nominated two women: seasoned parliamentarian Noreen Arif for LA‑27 Muzaffarabad‑I and newcomer Maryam Javed for LA‑37 Jammu‑IV. Arif, the first woman to win a direct vote from a territorial constituency in 2006 as an independent, retained her seat in 2016 on a PML‑N ticket and has served on reserved seats since the mid‑1980s. Javed comes from a family with a strong political legacy – her father‑in‑law Mian Rasheed, mother‑in‑law Shamim Akhtar, and brother‑in‑law Yasir Rasheed have all served in the AJK Assembly.

Speaking to Dawn by telephone from Bhimber, PML‑N secretary general indicated that the rest of the candidates would be announced in the next few days.

The ruling PPP has yet to formally announce its nominees, but spokesperson Shaukat Javed Mir told Dawn that the party leadership has finalized almost all candidates and has authorized them to proceed with election preparations. Mir filed nomination papers in LA‑33 Muzaffarabad‑VII (Leepa Valley) on Friday. The PPP nominated Minister for School Education Deevan Ali Chughtai, who ran in 2021 on a PTI ticket from the same constituency.

Mir noted that in 2021 he was fielded at the last minute after the PPP’s original candidate, Chaudhry Rasheed, defected to the PTI; Rasheed is now contesting the upcoming election on a PML‑N ticket.

The PTI, which recently reconstituted its parliamentary board, has not yet announced its candidates. Since the party remains unregistered with the Election Commission, its nominees are expected to run as independents.

By Friday, 527 nomination papers had been filed across all 45 seats, according to Election Commission Secretary Raja Shakeel Khan. The filing deadline, originally set for Friday, has been extended by four days due to the prevailing situation in the region.

Of the total nominations, 405 were for the 33 territorial constituencies and 122 for the 12 refugee seats. Mr. Khan reported 115 nominations in the nine Muzaffarabad Division seats, 93 in the 11 Poonch Division seats, and 198 in the 13 Mirpur Division seats. Fifty‑two nomination papers were submitted on Friday alone.

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2026

Source link