AJK Assembly to Elect Speaker, Deputy Speaker as PML-N Leads House
The newly constituted Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly is set to elect its speaker and deputy speaker on Tuesday, August 25, marking another decisive step in the formation of the region's new government. The AJK Election Commission has issued a detailed schedule for both contests, with voting due to take place at the Assembly Secretariat in Muzaffarabad later in the day.
Under the announced timetable, candidates for the two presiding offices can submit nomination papers between 10am and 11am. Election authorities are scheduled to scrutinise the papers at 11:15am and publish the initial list of candidates by 11:30am. Candidates will have until 11:45am to withdraw, with the final list expected to be issued at noon.
Voting for the speaker is scheduled for 2pm, followed by the deputy speaker election at 3pm. Outgoing Speaker Chaudhry Latif Akbar is expected to chair the assembly proceedings during the transition. The process comes immediately after newly elected lawmakers took their oaths, completing an important institutional stage following the recent AJK elections.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz enters the contests as the strongest parliamentary force in the new assembly. Recent results gave the PML-N 31 lawmakers among the members sworn in, while the Pakistan Peoples Party has 14. An Awami Dast-o-Bazu member has also been identified as supporting the PML-N, further strengthening the party's position as government formation moves forward.
The PML-N has nominated candidates for the presiding positions, with senior party leader Tariq Farooq named as its candidate for speaker. The numerical balance in the assembly gives the party a significant advantage, although the formal result will depend on voting during the scheduled session. The opposition, led principally by the PPP, remains represented in the process as the new legislature establishes its leadership structure.
The speaker and deputy speaker elections follow the completion of voting for reserved seats. PML-N secured five of the seven reserved seats that were contested on Monday, while PPP won two. The results reinforced the parliamentary lead established by PML-N during the general election phase and placed it in a commanding position ahead of the selection of the leader of the house.
The next major stage will be the election of the AJK prime minister, expected later this week. Once the presiding officers are chosen, attention will shift to that contest and the formal establishment of the new administration. The sequence of elections is significant for political stability in AJK and will determine the leadership responsible for managing legislative business during the new assembly's term.
Developments in the AJK legislature are also closely followed across Pakistan because the major parties operating in the region are central players in national politics and because governance in Azad Kashmir remains linked to Islamabad's broader policy and diplomatic engagement on Kashmir. With nominations, scrutiny and voting all scheduled within hours, the speaker and deputy speaker contests are expected to provide the clearest indication yet of how the new parliamentary balance will translate into government leadership.