Chaudhry Anwar ul Haq () is a Pakistani politician from

Azad Jammu and Kashmir Azad Jammu and Kashmir (; ), abbreviated as AJK and colloquially referred to as simply Azad Kashmir, is a region administered by Pakistan as a nominally self-governing entitySee: * * * and constituting the western portion of the larger K ...

(AJK). He is the current and 15th Prime Minister of AJK since April 2023, succeeding Sardar Tanveer Ilyas. He was a member of the

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI; ur, , ) is a political party in Pakistan. It was founded in 1996 by Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, who served as the country's prime minister from 2018 to 2022. The PTI is one of the th ...

(PTI) until September 7, 2023, when he was expelled from the party along with a group of political defectors.

Early life and family

Anwar was born in

Bhimber Bhimber ( ur, ) is the capital of Bhimber District, in the Azad Kashmir. The town is on the border between Jammu region and Punjab in Pakistan proper about by road southeast of Mirpur. History Bhimber was the capital of the Chibhal dynasty, ...

Azad Kashmir Azad Jammu and Kashmir (; ), abbreviated as AJK and colloquially referred to as simply Azad Kashmir, is a region administered by Pakistan as a nominally self-governing entitySee: * * * and constituting the western portion of the larger K ...

, into a politically active family of the

Jat The Jat people ((), ()) are a traditionally agricultural community in Northern India and Pakistan. Originally pastoralists in the lower Indus river-valley of Sindh, Jats migrated north into the Punjab region in late medieval times, and subseq ...

community, as his father Chaudhry Suhbat Ali was part of the

1947 Poonch rebellion In spring 1947, an uprising against the Maharaja Hari Singh of Jammu and Kashmir broke out in the Poonch jagir, an area bordering the Rawalpindi district of West Punjab and the Hazara district of the North-West Frontier Province in the futu ...

which liberated current Azad Kashmir from the

Dogras The Dogras or Dogra people, are an Indo-Aryan ethno-linguistic group in India and Pakistan consisting of the Dogri language speakers. They live predominantly in the Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir, and in adjoining areas of Punjab, Himacha ...

, while his brother Lt General (r) Chaudhary Ikram ul Haq is a former Defence Secretary (2018-2020).

Political career

Anwar was elected to the

Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly The Legislative Assembly of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, also known as AJK Legislative Assembly, is a unicameral legislature of elected representatives of the Pakistani administered state of Azad Kashmir, which is located in Muzaffarabad, the capital ...

in the 2006 Azad Kashmiri general election from LA-7 Bhimber-III as a candidate of the People's Muslim League. He defeated Chaudhry Tariq Farooq. On 16 August 2010, he was elected as the Speaker of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly. He succeeded Shah Ghulam Qadir of the

All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference The All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference ( ur, آل جموں و کشمیر مسلم کانفرنس) also shortly referred as Muslim Conference (MC) is a major political party in Pakistan administrated territory of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. The ...

(AJKMC). He contested the 2011 Azad Kashmiri general election from LA-7 Bhimber-III as a candidate of the

Pakistan People's Party The Pakistan People's Party ( ur, , ; PPP) is a centre-left, social-democratic political party in Pakistan. It is currently the third largest party in the National Assembly and second largest in the Senate of Pakistan. The party was founded ...

(PPP), but was unsuccessful. He received 26,509 votes and was defeated by Chaudhry Tariq Farooq, a candidate of the Pakistan Muslim League (N) (PML(N)). He contested the 2016 Azad Kashmiri general election from LA-7 Bhimber-III as an independent candidate, but was defeated by Chaudhry Tariq Farooq, a candidate of the PML(N). Anwar received 27,676 votes while Farooq received 30,339 votes. He was re-elected to the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly in the 2021 general election from LA-7 Bhimber-III as a candidate of the

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI; ur, , ) is a political party in Pakistan. It was founded in 1996 by Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, who served as the country's prime minister from 2018 to 2022. The PTI is one of the thre ...

(PTI). He received 38,308 votes and defeated Chaudhry Tariq Farooq, a candidate of the (PML(N)). On 3 August 2021, he was elected as the Speaker of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly with 32 votes, defeating Raja Faisal Mumtaz Rathore of the PPP. He succeeded the outgoing Speaker Shah Ghulam Qadir of the PML(N). On 20 April 2023, he was elected unopposed as the 15th

Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir is the chief executive of Azad Kashmir region of Pakistan. The title of Prime Minister symbolizes the nominal independence of Azad Kashmir. The prime minister heads the Council of Ministers, who are members of the A ...

with 48 votes in the 52-member AJK Legislative Assembly. He succeeded the previous Prime Minister, Sardar Tanveer Ilyas, who had been disqualified eight days prior. On 7 September, 2023, ''Dawn'' reported that the Kashmir chapter of the PTI had expelled Anwar in a crackdown against dissidents who had sided against Imran Khan's preferred candidate Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi.

References

{{Prime Ministers of Azad Kashmir Living people Prime ministers of Azad Kashmir Members of the Legislative Assembly of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf politicians 1970 births