Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is also the chairman of Kashmir Council, finally approved Justice Chaudhry Munir as permanent Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of Azad Jammu and Kashmir after four years on permanent basis.
The position of the CEC was vacant since the general polls in AJK and no name was unanimously approved by the AJK government, opposition and Ministry of Kashmir Affairs for the last four years.
The AJK government sent three names for CEC to PM through Ministry of Kashmir Affairs. The prime minister then approved the name of Justice Chaudhry Munir as CEC and dispatched the summery to AJK government through Ministry of Kashmir Affairs.
The AJK government and opposition returned this file to Ministry of Kashmir Affairs while showing no-confidence in Justice Chaudhry Munir and categorically refused to depute Justice Chaudhry Munir as CEC.
The news agency, Online, quoted sources as saying that government of AJK and opposition had agreed on Justice Abdul Rashid Sulheria as CEC, however, Minister of Kashmir Affairs got approval of Justice Munir from the PM ignoring the opinions of government of AJK and opposition.
According to the news agency, when they contacted spokesperson of AJK government and Minister of Information Sardar Abid Hussain Abid, he denied knowledge of the approval of summary of CEC of AJK and said that no summary in this regard was received by AJK government or by Ministry of Kashmir Affairs.
