On Wednesday, Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf was elected the 13th Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir. Today, let’s meet the new PM of Azad Kashmir!
Mr. Niazi was born as one of the 13 children of food inspector Fazal Dad and his three wives, in Darra Sher Khan, a village in the Battal sector.
At the age of 23, he ran for his first election and won, becoming the youngest district councilor in his Poonch district.
The family of AJK PM has links to the All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference (MC), which had ruled this side of the Line of Control for decades.
In 2011, violent polling in Mr. Niazi’s constituency – that saw local courts being set on fire and around 16,000 votes being burned – resulted in his opponent being declared victorious.
He was declared “victorious” again in 2016 after “85% polling” was found to have taken place in highly vulnerable areas along the LoC.
Surprisingly, the new PM of Azad Kashmir is from the Mughal Dulli sub-caste, and Niazi is his pseudonym, not his surname.
People claim he selected this title while he was a member of the district council in the early 1990s.
The AJK PM was MC leader Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan.
Because of the designation, there was sometimes confusion between their statements and official instructions, and the Poonch administration would occasionally carry out the commands of the district council members, mistaking them for prime ministerial directions.
To resolve the issue, then-Prime Minister Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan suggested Mr. Qayyum add a new title to his name, and he began using Niazi as his surname.