Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader Khalid Khursheed was on Monday elected as the new chief minister of Gilgit-Baltistan. Khursheed got 22 votes against nine votes to Amjad Hussain, a joint candidate of opposition parties, including Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslims League-Nawaz (PML-N).
Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party was already in the driving seat to win the coveted slot after its nominee Amjad Ali was elected Speaker earlier this week.
India has slammed Pakistan for its decision to hold elections in Gilgit-Baltistan and said any action to alter the status of the militarily-occupied region has no legal basis.
India also clearly conveyed to Pakistan that the entire Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, including the areas of Gilgit and Baltistan, are an integral part of the country.
Elections were held on 23 seats of the legislative assembly in Gilgit-Baltistan on November 15. Polling on one seat was postponed after the death of one of the contestants.
Prime Minister Khan’s party won 10 seats. The independent candidates won seven seats, PPP got three, PML-N two, whereas Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Fazl and Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen won one seat each.
Six independent winners later joined PTI. Further, the party was also allocated six reserved seats on the basis of its winning numbers, thus getting a majority of 22 in the house of 33.
It was the third election for the current legislative assembly after political reform was introduced in 2010.
Traditionally, the party ruling in Islamabad have won the Gilgit-Baltistan polls. The first election was won by PPP when it got 15 seats, followed by PML-N, the then ruling party, in 2015 when it won 16 seats.
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