Newly-elected AJK legislative assembly members take oath

Newly-elected members of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) legislative assembly took oath of their duties, local media reported on Tuesday.

Speaker of the AJK assembly, Shah Ghulam Qadir, administered the oath to the new members, including six women lawmakers.

However, President Muslim Conference Atiq Ahmed Khan and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) member Javed Iqbal did not take the oath.

Govt made efforts to ensure free, fair elections in AJK, says CEC Sulehria

On Monday, the PTI clinched three more reserved seats of the AJK assembly, increasing its strength to 32 in the 53-member house. The successful PTI candidates against the seats of ulema/mashaikh, technocrats and overseas Kashmiris were Muhammad Mazhar Saeed, Muhammad Rafiq Nayyer and Muhammad Iqbal.

In the general elections for 45 seats, the PPP had won 11 seats, but it had 10 votes because Chaudhry Yasin, one of its MLAs-elect, had returned from two constituencies, while the PML-N had six seats.

A total of 724 candidates from 32 political and religious parties contested for 45 general seats with 33 in Kashmir valley and 12 seats allocated for Kashmiri refugees. There were eight reserved seats - five for women and one each for religious scholars, technocrats, and overseas Kashmiris.

During the polling process, at least two activists of the PTI were gunned down as clashes erupted with workers of the PPP at a polling station in Kotli district.