PM Shehbaz Congratulates PML-N on AJK Poll Lead

Islamabad (GNP): Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif congratulated PML-N’s leadership and its successful candidates on Monday after unofficial results showed the party had won 14 of the 18 seats contested in the second phase of Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s elections held the previous day.

In a statement from the PM’s Office, Shehbaz credited the win to the efforts of PML-N President Nawaz Sharif and the wider party team. He said the result reflected public confidence in the party’s policies and that development, prosperity and the welfare of AJK’s people would remain PML-N’s top priority. He added that active participation by political parties in this phase would help strengthen the democratic process going forward.

The win followed a similar pattern from the first phase of polling in Mirpur division on July 27, where PML-N secured nine of 13 seats to the PPP’s four, its coalition partner at the centre but chief rival in AJK. Sunday’s second phase covered the seven territorial constituencies of Muzaffarabad division along with 12 seats reserved for refugees from India-occupied Kashmir, with a third phase still to come in Poonch division’s 11 constituencies. The elections have been split into three phases because of security concerns.

According to Radio Pakistan’s report of Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Ghulam Mustafa Mughal’s press briefing in Muzaffarabad, the unofficial results were as follows:

Constituency	Winning Candidate	Party
LA-25	Ghulam Qadir	PML-N
LA-26	Mian Abdul Waheed Khan	PPP
LA-29	Sardar Mukhtar Ahmad Khan	PPP
LA-30	Mustafa Bashir Abbasi	PML-N
LA-31	Saqib Majeed Khan	PML-N
LA-32	Raja Farooq Haider Khan	PML-N
LA-34	Nasir Dar	PML-N
LA-35	Chaudhry Muhammad Ismail	PML-N
LA-36	Muhammad Ahsan Raza	PML-N
LA-37	Maryam Javed	PML-N
LA-38	Zeeshah Ali	PML-N
LA-39	Raja Muhammad Siddique Khan	PML-N
LA-40	Amir Abdul Ghaffar Khan	PPP
LA-41	Muhammad Amir Shah	PML-N
LA-42	Syed Shawkat Ali Shah	PML-N
LA-43	Muhammad Yasin Lone	PML-N
LA-44	Ahmad Raza Qadiri	PML-N
LA-45	Abdul Majid Khan	PPP

Polling was postponed to Tuesday in LA-27 Muzaffarabad-I and at 71 of 174 polling stations in LA-28 Muzaffarabad-II. Landslides and bad weather had blocked roads and prevented polling staff and materials from reaching the area.

Adviser to the Prime Minister on Political Affairs and PML-N leader Rana Sanaullah said the party had now crossed the threshold needed to form government in AJK, citing 23 seats secured out of the assembly’s 45. He spoke alongside Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan Amir Muqam.

Sanaullah said PML-N had taken four of the seven territorial seats in Muzaffarabad to the PPP’s three, and 10 of the 12 refugee seats to the PPP’s two. He challenged the PPP to explain how it had still won seats if, as it claimed, the process had been rigged against it.

He said a democratic government with the people’s mandate would now be formed to work on the region’s ideological, economic and political affairs. A PML-N parliamentary party session would be convened once the third phase concluded, he added.

Sanaullah rejected the PPP’s allegations of rigging and violence. He instead accused the party of colluding with the now-proscribed Joint Awami Action Committee to disrupt polling in Muzaffarabad, alleging the two had anticipated a PML-N win and orchestrated unrest that included firing at police personnel.

He said this had created fear in the area and cost PML-N an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 votes due to lower turnout. He also dismissed the PPP’s claim that an attempt had been made on the life of its candidate and AJK Legislative Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Latif Akbar, calling it staged and noting that the PPP had declined to have Akbar undergo a medicolegal examination.

He accused the PPP of violating the Charter of Democracy, under which the parties had agreed not to challenge each other’s electoral mandates through such tactics. He also pushed back on PPP claims of suspiciously high turnout in some PML-N-won constituencies, arguing that near-total voter turnout in small AJK villages was not unusual given local social structures. He urged the PPP to pursue any complaints through proper channels rather than what he described as building a narrative to disrupt the democratic process.

The PPP has maintained its own account of events, accusing the PML-N of electoral malpractice, rigging and violence during Sunday’s polling, as it also did during the first phase.

In Union Council Katkair within LA-31 Muzaffarabad-V, clashes were reported between PML-N and PPP workers. The PPP alleged that one of its workers, Syed Mushtaq Shah, was killed in an attack by PML-N supporters, a claim the PML-N rejected, saying the man had suffered a cardiac arrest following a scuffle between the two groups. Neither account has been independently confirmed.

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Speaker Akbar separately wrote to the AJK chief election commissioner alleging security lapses, firing incidents, interference in polling, and polling agents being blocked from entering stations, along with denial of voting rights. He said an attempt had been made on his life in which Advocate Syed Mumtaz Hussain Naqvi was injured, and called for an investigation and legal action. The Election Commission had not responded to the allegations at the time of reporting.

Additional clashes between the two parties’ workers, some involving firearms, were reported elsewhere, though no casualties were confirmed in those incidents.

Beyond AJK itself, Kashmiris voted for refugee-seat candidates at polling stations set up across Punjab, Islamabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Balochistan. Cities included Chakwal, Jhelum, Rawalpindi, Sialkot, Narowal, Sargodha, Attock, Nawabshah, Hyderabad, Mohmand, Mansehra, Quetta, Dera Ghazi Khan, Peshawar, Sanghar and Naushahro Feroze.

Turnout in these areas was low and polling largely peaceful. No voter turned up at one Mohmand polling station, while in Dera Ghazi Khan a station set up for a single registered female voter in Maumori saw that lone voter cast her ballot.

The 12 refugee seats are distributed across provinces in varying configurations, with some shared among two or three provinces and the federal capital. The vote took place against the backdrop of ongoing protests since early June by the now-banned Joint Awami Action Committee, which has been demanding the abolition of the refugee seats altogether. These protests have themselves been marked by episodes of violence.