Khalid Khurshid set to become next Gilgit Baltistan chief minister

Advocate Khalid Khurshid is set to become the next chief minister of Gilgit Baltistan, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Friday.

PTI Chief Organiser Saifullah Niazi said that Prime Minister Imran Khan has finalized the name of Advocate Khalid Khurshid for Gilgit Baltistan chief minister.

Khalid Khurshid contested 2020 Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly election from constituency GBA-13 (Astore-I) on the ticket of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. He won the election by a margin of 1,719 votes over the runner-up Abdul Hameed Khan of Pakistan People’s Party. He garnered 4,836 votes while Abdul Hameed received 3,117 votes.

According to PTI, Khalid Khurshid, who joined the party in 2018, will be party's candidate for the chief ministership. Prime Minister Imran Khan chose Khalid Khurshid after holding consultations with PTI central and Gilgit Baltistan leadership.

Earlier, several names emerged for the coveted position of chief minister of Gilgit-Baltistan. Four names – Fatehullah, Khalid Khurshid, Col R Obaidullah and Advocate Nazir Ahmed – were with Prime Minister Imran Khan for consideration. Among them Khalid Khurshid got succeeded to win the confidence of the prime minister for the coveted job.

On Thursday, PTI leader Syed Amjad Ali Zaidi has been elected as third speaker of Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly after securing 18 votes. The united opposition’s candidate Ghulam Ahmad got only eight votes. Six votes rejected (4 government and 2 opposition) due to inaccurate stamping. Outgoing GBLA speaker Fida Muhammad Nashad administered the oath to the newly elected Amjad Zaidi.

G-B went to election on November 15 to elect 24 lawmakers of the legislative assembly on general seats. The voting was held on 23 seats as the election was delayed because of the death of a candidate. The by-poll to that seat was held last week.

According to the official results of the G-B election, the PTI gained two-thirds majority with the joining of six independent lawmakers.

According to the official results, PTI had 22 seats in the 33-strong house. The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) followed with 5 and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) 3. The Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and independent share one seat each.

All the newly-elected lawmakers were sworn during the inaugural session of the assembly, chaired by Speaker Haji Fida Muhammad Nashad. The speaker administered the oath. Addressing the session Nashad congratulated the newly-election members.