Muzaffarabad: Azad Kashmir has a new president. Dr. Najeeb Naqi Khan, the candidate backed by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), has been elected as the 25th President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir following a vote held inside the AJK Assembly.
The presidential election was conducted through a special assembly session, where 45 lawmakers cast their votes to decide the region’s next head of state. Polling remained underway until 1 p.m., after which the results confirmed Dr. Najeeb Naqi’s victory.
How the AJK Presidential Election Unfolded
Dr. Najeeb Naqi Khan was contesting against Chaudhry Latif Akbar, who was fielded by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). When the votes were tallied, Dr. Najeeb Naqi secured 32 votes in total, comfortably ahead of his rival.
His tally included 31 votes from PML-N assembly members, along with one additional vote from a lawmaker belonging to the Dast-o-Bazu party, who threw his support behind the PML-N nominee.
On the other side, PPP’s Chaudhry Latif Akbar managed to collect 13 votes. One assembly member did not participate in the vote and remained absent during polling.
Who Is Dr. Najeeb Naqi Khan?
The newly elected president of Azad Kashmir hails from the Sudhnoti Pallandri constituency in the Poonch division. This is not his first stint in AJK’s government; Dr. Najeeb Naqi has previously served as the region’s Health Minister from 2006 to 2011.
He returned to the same portfolio during the PML-N government that ran from 2016 to 2021, giving him considerable experience in AJK’s public health sector before stepping into the presidency.
With this win, Dr. Najeeb Naqi Khan now takes on the top constitutional office in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, a position that carries significant symbolic and political weight in the region’s governance structure.