Pakistan's PML-N withdraws support from Kashmir govt as PPP eyes takeover

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), a key party supporting Pakistan-administered Kashmir's government announced Tuesday it is withdrawing and will sit in opposition, as its coalition partner Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) maneuvers to seize control of the regional administration through defections and backroom deals.

PML-N said it would not participate in a new government being assembled by the PPP, its ally in Pakistan's federal coalition but now a rival in the strategic Himalayan territory's legislature.

The political rupture threatens to collapse the current government led by the PTI forward bloc, a breakaway faction of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan's party that has governed Pakistan-administered Kashmir since 2023 with support from both PML-N and PPP.

Now the PPP, claiming it has assembled its own majority, is moving to replace its coalition partner as the dominant force in the 53-seat Pakistan-administered Kashmir Legislative Assembly. The region's current prime minister, Chaudhry Anwar-ul-Haq, is expected to resign once the numbers shift, according to sources.

N-league keeps options open

PML-N president Shah Ghulam Qadir said Tuesday his party would not join what he called "unnatural or non-transparent" government formations, signaling opposition to the PPP's coalition-building efforts. He warned that members who break with the party line would face "strict action."

Kashmir has been divided between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan since 1947. Pakistan-administered Kashmir or Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), which translates to "Free Kashmir," maintains its own president and prime minister but remains under Islamabad's influence for defense and foreign policy.

The PPP claims it has secured commitments from 27 assembly members, enough for a narrow majority. The coalition would include 17 current and former PPP members, six from a faction known as the Barrister Group, three holding seats reserved for Kashmiri refugees and four defectors from the 19-member PTI forward bloc.

Defectors could be significant

The defections from the forward bloc would be particularly significant, representing a collapse of support for the group that currently leads the government with 19 seats, the largest single bloc in the assembly. PML-N holds nine seats and PPP 13, with four seats held by Khan's original Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party and 12 reserved for refugees.

Faryal Talpur, a senior PPP leader and sister of President Asif Ali Zardari, is scheduled to arrive in Islamabad on Wednesday to convene the 27 lawmakers and demonstrate their majority to party co-chairmen Zardari and his son Bilawal Bhutto.

If successful, Chaudhry Yaseen, the PPP's regional president, is expected to become the new prime minister following parliamentary tradition in Pakistan-administered Kashmir where party presidents typically claim the top post.

Shah Ghulam Qadir emphasized that only "free and transparent elections" could legitimately establish a new government. The PML-N, led nationally by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother, current Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, said it would focus on refugee welfare and prepare for election campaigns.

The discord in Kashmir contrasts with the parties' cooperation in Pakistan's federal government, where PML-N and PPP govern together in a coalition formed after disputed elections last year.