MUZAFFARABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has summoned party ticket aspirants for the upcoming Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) elections to Lahore on Friday (today), party sources said.

More than 205 PML-N leaders and activists from 33 constituencies in AJK and 12 in Pakistan, reserved for the refugees from occupied Jammu and Kashmir, have applied for party tickets. They have been directed to appear before the parliamentary board at 11:30am at the party’s Model Town office, a party leader told Dawn on Thursday.

Prior to this, the 24-member parliamentary board will hold its first formal meeting at 11am with Mr Sharif in the chair. The board, constituted by him on April 16, has been tasked with scrutinising and finalising candidates for the polls due in July.

Headed by Mr Sharif, the board includes Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif, and federal ministers Ahsan Iqbal, Khawaja Asif, Amir Muqam and Rana Sanaullah.

Other members include former ministers Senator Pervaiz Rashid, Senator Anusha Rahman, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Chaudhry Barjees Tahir, Hamza Shehbaz, Marriyum Aurangzeb and retired Capt Muhammad Safdar. Former MNA Chaudhry Abid Raza was also added to the panel recently.

The AJK representation comprises the party’s regional president Shah Ghulam Qadir, former AJK prime minister Raja Farooq Haider, Mushtaq Ahmad Minhas, Chaudhry Muhammad Saeed, Chaudhry Tariq Farooq, Dr Najeeb Naqi, Barrister Iftikhar Gillani and Chaudhry Abdul Rehman Arain.

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had also constituted a nine-member political committee comprising federal ministers and AJK-based leaders to shape party policy and oversee political affairs related to the region.

In February, the committee’s AJK members held consultations with prospective candidates at divisional headquarters across the territory, while separate consultations with aspirants from among Pakistan-based Kashmiri refugees were held in Rawalpindi.

Party sources said the committee had completed most of the groundwork regarding prospective candidates in the 33 AJK constituencies.

Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2026