Hamid Mir
Azad Kashmir was once called the laboratory of Pakistani politics. In this laboratory, new political experiments were conducted and then those experiments were repeated in Pakistani politics. With the passage of time, this laboratory is now becoming a circus in which different circles are showing their own tricks in a very chaotic manner. The irony is that none of the tricks of these circles are clean. They proudly present some old political experiments conducted in this laboratory as a new trick and when they do not get appreciation, they celebrate very badly. Just look at the recent election of the Prime Minister in Azad Kashmir. The Muslim League (N) ignored its party president and former speaker Shah Ghulam Qadir in Azad Kashmir and made Iftikhar Gilani, who had lost the elections twice in a row, the Prime Minister. After losing the 2026 election, this gentleman was brought to the assembly on the technocrat seat. As soon as he became an assembly member on the technocrat seat, some powerful people included him in the list of candidates for the Prime Ministership.
The biggest argument brought in favour of Iftikhar Gilani was that he was very educated. If this argument is really accepted, then why didn’t the people of his own constituency decide in favour of such a worthy candidate? Shah Ghulam Qadir is one of the founders of the Muslim League (N) in Azad Kashmir. He left the Muslim Conference in 2010 along with Sardar Sikandar Hayat and Raja Farooq Haider and joined the Muslim League (N). Sardar Sikandar Hayat returned to the Muslim Conference, but Raja Farooq Haider and Shah Ghulam Qadir stood with the Muslim League (N). In the recent elections of Azad Kashmir, Shah Ghulam Qadir worked very hard as the party president. His great achievement is that he became a member of the Azad Kashmir Assembly on a Mohajir seat for the first time in 1998. Many members of his family still live in occupied Kashmir. He could have succeeded on a Mohajir seat in the future, but he made his constituency in Neelum Valley with great effort. In 2016, he contested the election for the first time on a general seat from Neelum Valley and won.
In the 2026 elections, he faced strong resistance from the Joint Public Action Committee, but as the party president, he campaigned throughout Azad Kashmir. He also won his seat and brought a historic victory to the Muslim League (N), but some supporters of Iftikhar Gilani say that someone else is behind the recent success of the Muslim League (N) in Azad Kashmir. This someone else is Maryam Nawaz, who herself says that the people of Azad Kashmir have voted for the performance of the Muslim League (N) in Punjab. The question is, if the Muslim League (N) was so popular in Azad Kashmir, then why has the election not been held on the seven seats of Poonch yet despite the use of all state power? The Muslim League (N) is claiming that the decision to make Iftikhar Gilani the Prime Minister was taken by the party leader Nawaz Sharif because he wanted to introduce a new face in Azad Kashmir. If Nawaz Sharif liked this new face so much, why didn’t he himself sit with Iftikhar Gilani and announce this new face for Azad Kashmir?
Nawaz Sharif can be criticized in other matters, but the decision to make Iftikhar Gilani the Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir is not his. According to my knowledge, when Shah Ghulam Qadir received the news that Iftikhar Gilani, who had become an MLA on a technocrat seat, was being made the Prime Minister, he sent a voice message to his leader Nawaz Sharif in a very polite manner. In this message, he said that if a person who had lost the elections twice in a row was made the Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir, he would not accept this decision and he would be forced to leave the post of PML-N, however, he would continue to work for the party as a worker. After hearing this voice message, Nawaz Sharif called Shah Ghulam Qadir and asked who told you that Iftikhar Gilani was being made the Prime Minister?
Shah Ghulam Qadir replied with great respect that I am the president of your party in Azad Kashmir, my newly elected colleagues are telling me that a technocrat is being made the Prime Minister, and he is being taken into confidence. Their leader Nawaz Sharif strongly denied this news and asked Shah Ghulam Qadir to delete his voice message. Then Nawaz Sharif asked him who should be made the speaker of the Azad Kashmir Assembly? Shah Ghulam Qadir named Chaudhry Tariq Farooq. He also gave two or three names for the deputy speaker and left the final decision in this regard to Nawaz Sharif. The respected leader also conveyed the greetings of Maryam Nawaz to Shah Ghulam Qadir, who was sitting next to him. The matter was over. After two days, the election of the speaker and deputy speaker took place. Now Shah Ghulam Qadir and Raja Farooq Haider were called to the Prime Minister House, Islamabad. Earlier, all the decisions were made by Nawaz Sharif, but this time they were called by Shahbaz Sharif. Ah Ghulam Qadir reached the Prime Minister with a beating heart. Apart from Shahbaz Sharif, Rana Sanaullah, Khawaja Saad Rafique and some other people were also present in this meeting held at the Prime Minister House. In this meeting, Rana Sanaullah decided to make Iftikhar Gilani the Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir, but before Shah Ghulam Qadir, Raja Farooq Haider rejected this decision. Shah Ghulam Qadir said that you should not make me the Prime Minister, but there are many educated colleagues among our elected members.
You should make any of them the Prime Minister, I will vote for him, but I will not vote for an unelected person as the Prime Minister. Shahbaz Sharif tried hard to convince Shah Ghulam Qadir, but he refused to be a puppet. This experiment is not happening for the first time in Azad Kashmir. General Ayub Khan also introduced KH Khurshid in 1961 as a new face compared to Sardar Ibrahim and Sardar Qayyum and made him the President of Azad Kashmir. KH Khurshid had obtained a law degree from the University of London, but after a few days, this experiment failed and he was removed from the presidency. Then after many years, Barrister Sultan Mahmood was made the Prime Minister and it was said that he was a new face. The deceased changed parties a lot but the situation in Azad Kashmir could not change.
One big difference is that KH Khurshid and Barrister Sultan Mahmood came back after winning the elections. Iftikhar Gilani has lost the last two elections. He became the Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir and even reached Shah Ghulam Qadir’s house to congratulate him, but now he has become an alarm bell for Pakistani politics. His becoming the Prime Minister will further strengthen the narrative of the Public Action Committee, which had declared the Azad Kashmir elections as a fraud.
Now, Pakistani politicians will also follow the path of pleasing someone else like Iftikhar Gilani instead of working hard in their constituencies like Shah Ghulam Qadir. Shah Ghulam Qadir has been offered to be the President of Azad Kashmir. As of the time of writing, he has not accepted this offer. The respect and honour he has been getting for the past few days is something he would never have received by becoming the Prime Minister. The Muslim League (N) is registered in his name with the Election Commission of Azad Kashmir. He should hand over this registration to Nawaz Sharif with great courtesy and respect because now the future of this party in Azad Kashmir is very uncertain. Shah Sahib should have the courage and tell Nawaz Sharif that after making a technocrat who lost elections twice in Azad Kashmir the prime minister, now there is a technocrat coming to Pakistan as well.
