Dr Najeeb Naqi Elected AJK President With 32 Votes

Dr Najeeb Naqi of the PML-N was elected President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday 24 September 2026. He won 32 votes in the AJK Legislative Assembly. The PPP candidate, Chaudhry Latif Akbar, won 13. One member was absent, according to Geo News.

The vote fills an office that had been empty since 31 January 2026, when President Barrister Sultan Mahmood died. The new AJK president serves a five-year term. With his election, all of AJK's top offices are filled for the first time since the 2026 general election.

Dr Najeeb Naqi won 32 of the 46 votes in the house

Dr Naqi took 32 votes and Chaudhry Latif Akbar took 13, Dawn and Geo News reported. The AJK Legislative Assembly has 46 sworn members, so one member did not vote. Polling ran at the Assembly Secretariat in Muzaffarabad.

The numbers add up to the full house. On 25 August, Dawn counted 32 members on the PML-N side, including one ally, and 14 on the PPP side. Geo News said Dr Naqi's 32 came from 31 PML-N members and one member of the Jammu Kashmir Awami Dast-o-Bazu, a small party allied with the PML-N.

The AJK Constitution needs a majority of the total membership. With 46 members, that is 24 votes. Even if you count all 53 seats, it would be 27. Dr Naqi passed both on the first ballot, so no second round was needed.

The AJK Election Commission ran the vote. Its Chief Election Commissioner, Justice (retd) Ghulam Mustafa Mughal, was the returning officer, meaning the official who takes the nomination papers and declares the result. Both candidates filed papers on 19 September, and both were accepted, The Express Tribune reported.

The AJK president acts on the prime minister's advice

The AJK president is the head of state, but the prime minister runs the government. Article 7 of the AJK Interim Constitution 1974 says the president must act on the prime minister's advice, and that advice is binding. We read this in the Assembly's own copy of the constitution.

Executive power is used in the president's name, but it is the prime minister and ministers who use it (Article 12). The president does keep some formal powers. He can grant pardons (Article 10), and ministers take their oath before him (Article 14).

Removing a president is hard. A no-confidence resolution needs notice from one third of the members and a two-thirds vote to pass (Article 6).

The office had been vacant since 31 January 2026

Barrister Sultan Mahmood died in an Islamabad hospital on 31 January 2026, aged 70, Dawn reported. Since then, two Assembly speakers have acted as president: first Chaudhry Latif Akbar of the PPP, then Chaudhry Tariq Farooq of the PML-N after 25 August.

Article 9 of the constitution says the speaker acts as president when the office falls vacant. It also says the speaker must arrange an election within 30 days. The election was held almost eight months after the vacancy.

On 28 February 2026, two Muzaffarabad advocates filed a petition in the AJK High Court asking for the election to be held within the time the constitution sets, Dawn reported. We did not find a report of a ruling on that petition.

Chaudhry Latif Akbar was the acting president until August. He then lost his own Assembly seat in the general election, Dawn reported, and came back as the PPP's candidate for the full post.

Dr Najeeb Naqi is a former AJK health and finance minister

Dr Naqi, 62, belongs to Sudhnoti district, Dawn and The Express Tribune reported. He was AJK health minister from 2006 to 2011 and held the health portfolio again in the PML-N government from 2016 to 2021, according to Geo News.

The Express Tribune added that he has also held education, information technology, finance, and planning and development portfolios. PML-N President Nawaz Sharif named him as the party's candidate on 16 September.

His nomination papers were proposed by former AJK prime minister Raja Farooq Haider and seconded by the current AJK Prime Minister, Barrister Syed Iftikhar Ali Gillani. Chaudhry Latif Akbar, 78, was proposed by Deevan Ali Khan Chughtai and seconded by Sardar Mukhtar Ahmed Abbasi, both PPP members.

Sudhnoti is also one of the districts where polling was postponed in August, so its seats are still empty.

AJK's top offices are now filled, but seven seats are still empty

With a president elected, AJK now has a president, prime minister, speaker and opposition leader in place. Seven Assembly seats in Poonch and Sudhnoti still have no polling date in the reports we read. The table lists each office and its source.

In the direct elections, polling was held in 38 of the 45 constituencies. The PML-N won 25 and the PPP won 12, and the single Awami Dast-o-Bazu member joined the PML-N, Dawn and The Express Tribune reported. Reports differ slightly on how the reserved seats split, so we give only the totals both agree on.

The oath and the AJK Council vote come next

Dr Naqi must take the oath before the Chief Justice of AJK before he takes office, under Article 5(6). His five-year term runs from that day. We had not seen a report of the oath date when we last checked.

1. Oath of office. The Chief Justice of AJK gives Dr Naqi the oath. Until then, Speaker Chaudhry Tariq Farooq keeps acting as president.
2. AJK Council election on 12 October. The AJK Election Commission has set polling for four seats of the AJK Council from 10am to 1pm, Dawn reported. Nomination papers are due on 1 October.
3. The seven postponed seats. The commission has to set a new date for Poonch and Sudhnoti. Until those seats vote, the Assembly sits at 46 of 53.

We also tried to open the official AJK websites on 24 September 2026. The Assembly's home page at ajkassembly.gok.pk showed a maintenance notice, although the constitution file on the same server downloaded normally. The address presidentajk.gov.pk, which the AJK government portal links to, did not resolve for us. The portal itself, ajk.gov.pk, loaded. We track results like these across Pakistani government websites and note what opens on the day.

Common questions

Who is the new AJK president?

Dr Najeeb Naqi of the PML-N. He was elected on 24 September 2026 with 32 votes, against 13 for the PPP's Chaudhry Latif Akbar.

How is the AJK president elected?

By members of the AJK Legislative Assembly. A candidate needs a majority of the total membership, under Article 5 of the AJK Interim Constitution 1974. The Chief Election Commissioner runs the vote.

Who was the last AJK president?

Barrister Sultan Mahmood. He died on 31 January 2026, and the Assembly speaker acted as president until this election.

Who is the AJK prime minister now?

Barrister Syed Iftikhar Ali Gillani of the PML-N. He was elected and sworn in on 28 August 2026, Dawn reported.

Is the AJK president more powerful than the prime minister?

No. The president is head of state, but Article 7 says he must act on the prime minister's advice. The prime minister is the chief executive.

How long is the AJK president's term?

Five years from the day he takes office. He stays in office after that until a successor takes over, under Article 5(5).

Last checked and sources

Last checked 24 September 2026. We read the text of Articles 5 to 14 in the AJK Interim Constitution 1974 on the Assembly's server, which is where the rules on election, advice, acting president, the 30-day rule and the oath come from. The vote of 32 to 13 is from Dawn and Geo News on 24 September 2026; the absent member and the 31 plus 1 split are from Geo News. The candidates' ages, proposers and filing are from Dawn and The Express Tribune, 19 September 2026. The prime minister's election, the speaker's election and the opposition leader are from Dawn, 25 and 28 August 2026. The High Court petition is from Dawn, 1 March 2026. The Council election date is from Dawn, 24 September 2026. The website checks are our own, from 24 September 2026. We are reporting these events, not judging them. If anything here is wrong, tell us and we will correct it openly.