Police seal Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly ahead of chief minister election

Ahead of the election for the new chief minister, police officials entered the Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly on Wednesday, sealing the premises and evacuating journalists and lawmakers present.

A day earlier, the Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Court had disqualified Chief Minister Khalid Khurshid on charges of obtaining a licence from the region’s bar council based on a fake degree.

Subsequently, the PTI had nominated Raja Azam as the party’s candidate for the slot while the PPP had nominated Amjad Advocate, the PML-N had nominated Engineer Anwar and the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam had nominated Rehmat Khaliq.

The deadline to submit candidates’ nomination papers was noon while the election was to take place at 3pm today.

However, shortly after the first deadline lapsed, a heavy police contingent headed by Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Farman Ali entered the assembly hall and sealed it.

At the same time, officials told the journalists gathered at the scene to exit from the main gate, asking the assembly staff to do the same shortly thereafter. The police contingent then encircled the premises and also barred lawmakers from entering.

Meanwhile, the ex-chief minister alleged that the election was being delayed because the PTI had a “clear majority” and would vote for the party’s candidate.

He further alleged that after delaying the poll, efforts would be made to “break [away]” PTI lawmakers. He claimed that if this failed, lawmakers, including him, would then be arrested so that the party loses the majority.

PTI’s Farrukh Habib said that “political engineering” was underway in GB. He said that the chief minister election had been postponed in light of the PTI’s “clear victory”, adding that such steps were increasing “instability”.

Earlier today, PTI’s Central Information Secretary Raoof Hassan stated that the election should be held without any delay.

“Opposition trying to delay the convening of session to play their dirty game of buying and selling. Disgusting and deplorable,” he said.

GB high court disqualifies Khurshid in fake degree case

In Tuesday’s order disqualifying Khurshid, who is also PTI’s regional president, was passed by a three-judge bench comprising Justice Malik Inayatur Rehman, Justice Johar Ali and Justice Mushtaq Muhammad.

Ghulam Shahzad Agha, a member of the GB Assembly from PPP, had earlier challenged Khurshid’s law degree and sought his disqualification under Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution.

The petitioner, through his counsel Amjad Hussain, contended that the degree submitted by Khurshid had not been verified by the University of London, and the Higher Education Commission (HEC) had declared it to be fake.

On May 29, Chief Judge Ali Baig formed a larger bench to hear the case with instructions to conduct day-to-day hearings and conclude the case within 14 days.

The GB Chief Court — which has a status equal to that of other high courts of Pakistan and whose decisions are appealed to the Supreme Appellate Court GB, the highest court in the region — also issued notices to the HEC, the chief minister, GB Bar Council and the Election Commission to submit their replies on the issue.

All respondents in the case completed their arguments, after which the bench disqualified Khurshid for five years.

Earlier in the day, a no-confidence motion was also submitted against Khurshid in the GB Assembly by nine lawmakers from opposition parties.

After the decision passed by the GB Chief court, the region’s chief election commissioner de-notified Khurshid as a member of the GB Assembly.