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Muslim Conference wins 20 seats

Nirupama Subramanian

ISLAMABAD: The Muslim Conference, which won half the seats in the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir Assembly elections, is set to form the next Government in the region.

The Assembly has 41 elected members. The Muslim Conference won 20 out of 40 seats for which results were declared. Results for one constituency were withheld following allegations of election malpractice.

The region's election commissioner is expected to issue an official notification of the results later this week.

The Pakistan People's Party won seven seats, its ally the Jammu and Kashmir People's Party won one, the Pakistan Muslim League four, and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement two. Of the six independents who won, three are Ministers in the outgoing Government and are likely to join hands with the Muslim Conference again.

Split

From the victory margins of the Muslim Conference candidates, the party clearly owes its return to a split in the PPP in the run-up to the elections.

Those who left the PPP organised under the PML, the ruling party at the centre, which for the first time put up candidates for PoK elections. In several places, the votes of the PPP and the PML taken together are higher than those polled by the Muslim Conference.

Leader of the Muslim Conference Sardar Attique Khan is set to be the Prime Minister of PoK, while outgoing Prime Minister Sikandar Hyatt, who did not contest the elections, is likely to be the President.

While PoK — Pakistan calls it Azad Jammu Kashmir and projects it as an independent entity in charge of its own affairs — has a President and Prime Minister, it is effectively ruled from Islamabad, which has control over the region's defence, finances and foreign affairs.

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