Prime Minister Imran Khan has pulled another surprise, this time in AJK, by appointing Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi as the prime minister over there. Needless to say that this move has left pundits, observers and even PTI insiders, who were expecting either Barrister Sultan Mahmood or Sardar Tanveer Ilyas to get the nod, scratching their heads. It has also, quite naturally, got analysts on prime time TV recalling the earlier experiment in Punjab, when PM Imran Khan courted controversy by naming a political unknown, Usman Buzdar, as chief minister. Since nobody has yet been impressed by the Buzdar example, primarily because of his inexperience, the jury is now out on the choice for the AJK prime minister.
There is some weight in the argument that the PM has distributed the Kashmir portfolio among relative political lightweights with eroding credibility. Ali Amin Gandapur, as federal minister for Kashmir affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan, and Shehryar Khan Afridi, as chairperson of the parliamentary special committee on Kashmir, have left a little to be desired so far, to say the very least. And such has been the trajectory of their respective careers and profiles that not many people, even from within the ruling party, have too many hopes of them turning the corner anytime soon. It is now being expected, rather feared, that the addition of Abdul Qayyum Niazi, who has been elected as a member of the legislative assembly (MLA) only twice, to that list will only add to such concerns.
The new AJK PM is by all accounts what is called in the world of politics a soft person. Known as a humble man with a simple lifestyle, he will now have to pull himself up because the situation demands a very robust team at the helm in AJK. Surely the prime minister understands best the kind of environment that is developing in the region since he has been personally spearheading Pakistan’s campaign to stand with our oppressed brethren on the other side of the Line of Control (LoC). One can only hope that since Niazi’s hometown borders the Line he would understand the gravity of issues there better than most of his colleagues. His actions will be directly monitored form Islamabad, of course, since what he achieves will reflect directly on the political foresight of the PM of Pakistan.​
Published in Dailytimes on 6th August 2021