AJK Legislative Assembly elects PPP leader Ch. Latif Akbar as Speaker

MUZAFFARABAD, Jun 03 (APP): Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly (LA) on Saturday elected Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) leader Ch. Latif Akbar as Speaker after approximately a month when the former speaker Ch. Anwar ul Haq was elected as Prime Minister and the seat was vacant.

Ch. Latif Akbar secured 19 votes as a minority of the house but was declared elected as Pakistan Tehreek- e- Insaaf (PTI) candidate Ch. Maqbool Gujar boycotted the election and only Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) and the PPP legislators voted for the election.

Interestingly, the Like-minded group of PTI headed by Ch. Prime Minister Ch. Anwar ul Haq also did not vote for the election of the speaker and could manage to get the slot of the opposition leader in the house.

Earlier, 40 members including PMLN, PPP and Like-minded PTI voted in favour of an amendment in the interim constitution 1974 allowing the Prime Minister to appoint as many ministers in his cabinet as he pleased.

The restriction was inserted in the interim constitution through the 13th amendment by the former PML-N government in 2018.

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