Islamabad, June 22:
The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has nominated Advocate Amjad Hussain as its candidate for the chief ministerial post in Gilgit-Baltistan after emerging as the largest party in the region’s recent elections.
The announcement was made on Sunday by PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, who also instructed Hussain to focus on government formation and the implementation of constitutional and economic rights for local residents.
A lawyer by profession, Hussain previously served as a member of the Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly from 2020 to 2025 and was part of the region’s legislative council between 2009 and 2014.
The PPP secured 12 seats in the 24-member Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly, making it the single largest party following the elections held on June 7.
Reports indicate that the party is expected to form a coalition government with the support of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) under a power-sharing arrangement similar to the one currently in place at Pakistan’s federal level.
According to local media reports, the proposed formula provides for the chief minister’s position to go to the PPP, while the PML-N would receive the posts of governor, leader of the opposition, and deputy speaker.
Leaders of both parties reportedly agreed to the arrangement after consultations, describing the decision as based on mutual trust and consensus. PML-N regional chief Hafeez Hafeezur Rehman said the party’s central leadership had endorsed support for a PPP-led government.
India, however, continues to reject Pakistan’s electoral exercises in Gilgit-Baltistan, maintaining that the region forms part of the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
New Delhi asserts that the territory legally acceded to India in 1947 and has protested the recent elections, describing Pakistan’s control over Gilgit-Baltistan as illegal and forcible.
India has consistently maintained that the entire region remains an integral and inalienable part of the country.