GILGIT: Advocate Amjad Hussain, who has been nominated by Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari as the party`s candidate for chief minister of Gilgit-Baltistan, said the PPP had broken the perception that only the party ruling at the Centre could form a government in the region.

Meanwhile, the first session of the newly-elected GB Assembly has been convened for Monday (today) at 9am, during which memberselect will take the oath of office and elect the leader of the house, the speaker and the deputy speaker.

`This is a transformation and the Centre should respect it,` Mr Hussain told Dawn, referring to a party other than the one ruling in Islamabad coming to power in GB.

`This is the first time that the people of GB have voted for democratic political parties, while rejecting traditional and ethnic trends as well as religious and sub-nationalist parties,` he added.

Mr Hussain said for the first time, the party had advanced the concept of granting provisional provincial status to GB to counter the decision of Indian Prime MinisterNarendra Modi`s government to revoke the special status of Indiaheld Kashmir in 2019. He added that granting provisional provincial status to GB, along with representation in the National Assembly and Senate until a plebiscite was held in Kashmir, would strengthen Pakistan`s position on the dispute.

In 2022, then ruling PTI sabotaged the 26th Amendment, which was also seeking the declaration of GB as a provisional province.

A prominent lawyer and president of the PPP`s Gilgit-Baltistan chapter, Mr Hussain was elected to the GB Assembly from GBA-1 in the recent elections. He previously served as a member of the GB Council from 2009 to 2014 and remained a member of the GB Assembly from 2020 to 2025.

He also served as opposition leader in the assembly from 2020 to 2023 during the PTI-led government headed by Khalid Khurshid.

Govt formation Earlier, addressing the media in Gilgit, the PPP and the Istehkam-iPakistan Party (IPP) leaders said consultations had resulted in an agreement under which the IPP would support the PPP in the gov-ernment formation process.

PPP Central Secretary General Nayyar Hussain Bukhari, senior party leader Qamar Zaman Kaira and Mr Hussain attended the event.

The IPP delegation included its Secretary General Khalid Mahmood, GB President Haji Gulbar Khan and Raja Jalal.

Mr Gulbar Khan said other important matters between the two parties would be decided by their central leaderships at the federal level.

According to an official source, the PML-N and IPP have decided to support the PPP in the election of the chief minister, speaker and deputy speaker. PTI-backed member-elect Sohail Abbas Shah and Majlis Wahdat-i-Muslimeen`s Kazim Mesum have also assured the PPP of their support.

PPP`s Advocate Amjad Hussain is expected to be elected chief minister, while Imran Nadeem is expecte d to become the speaker. Meanwhile, PML-N`s Malik Kifayat is slated to be the new deputy speaker.

Meanwhile, supporters of PPP candidate Attaullah Khan from GBA-16 Diamer-II continued their protest for a second consecutive day, bloclcing the Karakoram Highway in Chilas.