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GILGIT: Haji Gulbar Khan has been elected as the new chief minister of Gilgit-Baltistan.
Gulbar Khan was the candidate of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) forward bloc in the GB Assembly.
The polling session was chaired by Speaker Nazir Advocate as 20 members were present. During a show of hands, Gulbar khan received 19 out of twenty votes polled in the elections.
The PPP and PML-N did not participate in the polls. The JUI-F candidate voted in the Haji Gulbar Khan while an independent candidate voted in favour of Nawaz Khan Naji.
Four candidates have filed nomination papers for the election of the new chief minister. The slot became vacant after the disqualification of PTI’s Khalid Khurshid Khan.
The PTI’s like-minded group comprising of Raja Azam, Javed Ali Manwa and Raja Zakaria, who distanced themselves from the party did not participate in the elections.
Former Health Minister Haji Gulbar Khan formed a forward bloc and emerged as a candidate for the slot of chief minister, claiming to have support of seven members.
Last week, the Gilgit-Baltistan Supreme Appellate Court (SAC) issued an order to delay the election for the new chief minister, citing procedural irregularities.
Governor GB Syed Mehdi Shah stopped the election after the court’s order. Haji Gulbar Khan requested the court to stop the election.
The region’s top court issued a statement halting the election. Chief Judge Justice Sardar Muhammad Shamim Khan ordered that the election be adjourned.
The Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly has 33 members. The total number of PTI members in the GB Assembly reduced to 21 after the disqualification of Khalid Khurshid Khan.
The PPP has five members and PML-N has three members, while Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM) and JUI-F have one member each. There is also one independent member.
The elections were supposed to be held on July 5 but dramatic scenes occurred after police was deployed outside the assembly building and lawmakers were prevented from entering to cast their vote.