File photo of former AJK prime minister Sardar Qayyum Niazi
Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi, the prime minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), on Thursday resigned from his office ahead of a no-confidence vote filed against him by his own party—the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf—which is seeking to replace him with regional president Sardar Tanveer Ilyas.
“Under Article 16 (1) of the AJK Constitution, I, the undersigned, resign from my office of the prime minister,” states Niazi’s handwritten resignation, addressed to AJK President Sultan Mehmood Chaudhry. Addressing a press conference after tendering his resignation, Niazi said he had resigned as his own party had expressed no-confidence in his rule.
“I am a democratic person and will always remain with Imran Khan,” he said. “I took my democratic decision and resigned in a dignified manner,” he said, noting that he was not accused of any corruption and had sent his resignation to both PTI Chairman Imran Khan and the AJK president.
On Tuesday, 25 members of the ruling PTI in AJK submitted a no-confidence motion against Niazi under Article 18 of the AJK Constitution, accusing him of failing to implement the party’s manifesto or properly highlight the Kashmir issue. The AJK Assembly was set to vote on the no-confidence motion on Friday, with the movers having already named Ilyas as the successor to Niazi.
Following Niazi’s resignation, the Assembly would proceed to vote on the new prime minister rather than voting him out and then picking a new prime minister, according to regional members of the PTI. However, legal experts say this would be in violation of law, as parliamentarians cannot elect a new leader of the house unless the president has summoned a session specifically to vote on the new prime minister.
Prior to his resignation, Niazi dismissed four ministers and an adviser from his cabinet, accusing them of “misconduct, wrongdoings and malpractices.” The sacked officials—Housing Minister Tanveer Ilyas; Local Government and Rural Development Minister Khawaja Farooq Ahmed; Finance Minister Abdul Majid Khan; Food Minister Ali Shan Soni; and Adviser for Civil Defense and Disaster Management Chaudhry Muhammad Akbar Rahim—were all among the movers of the vote of no-confidence against him.
“The no-trust motion against Abdul Qayyum Niazi was submitted on the directives of party chairman and leader Imran Khan. Alas, the person who Imran Khan chose out of 32 [parliamentary party members] for this office is publicly trying to sabotage his decision. But we stand by our chairman,” Khawaja Farooq Ahmed posted on Twitter after the former AJK prime minister sacked him from the cabinet.