Raja Faisal Mumtaz Rathore on Tuesday was sworn in as the 16th prime minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).
The oath-taking ceremony was held a day after PPP’s Rathore was announced as the new AJK premier after Chaudhry Anwarul Haq was ousted through a vote of no-confidence (VoNC) in the region’s legislative assembly.
The oath was administered by AJK Legislative Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Latif Akbar at the President’s House in Muzaffarabad. The speaker performed the duty on behalf of AJK President Barrister Sultan Mahmood, who reportedly could not travel to the regional capital owing to his health issues.
Speaking after the oath, Rathore said, “First of all, I thank God from my heart for bestowing this heavy responsibility on my weak shoulders.”
The newly sworn-in premier said fulfilling those duties would not be an “easy task in this extremely difficult era”, but said he believed God gave strength to those entrusted with such tasks.
Rathore also thanked President Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur, saying that owing to them, not only was a “new government established, but the PPP has again become one of the biggest parties” in AJK.
The PPP leader termed AJK a “basecamp” of the freedom movement for Kashmir. “It aims to cultivate this movement and fully play its role in it while staying here,” he said.
The new premier highlighted that another key point was the region’s development and progress. He paid tribute to the martyrs of the freedom movement and the soldiers on the Line of Control.
Rathore also recalled that in 1975, ex-PM Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had chosen his father late Raja Mumtaz Hussain Rathore as a senior minister, and later in 1990, ex-PM Benazir Bhutto chose him as the AJK premier “despite him being a part of a small community in the PPP”.
“And now, in 2025, the party leadership trusted me and sent me into this field,” Rathore added. He went on to affirm that this “relationship of trust based on half a decade” would remain between him and his party.
‘Six months are a test’
PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari also spoke on the occasion, urging the people to work together with his party. He also called for the restoration of open courts in the region.
Pointing out that elections were due in AJK in six months, he asked the PPP’s head in the region, Chaudhry Yasin, to start preparing for the polls.
He further assured that the PPP would not run the government from “closed rooms”.
“We will sit among the public, meet them, join their political struggle, and resolve their problems.”
