MUZAFFARABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Thursday demanded the immediate resignation of the Chaudhry Anwarul Haq-led coalition government in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), followed by fresh, transparent, and impartial elections by the end of October amid what it described as an escalating constitutional, legal, and administrative breakdown in the region.

The party also called upon the federal government and state institutions to constitute a fact-finding commission to probe the actions and omissions of the AJK government during the past two years, identify those responsible for unlawful conduct, and hold them accountable under the law.

Addressing a press conference, former AJK Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider who also leads the PML-N`s parliamentary group and the party`s regional sec-retary general and former senior minister Chaudhry Tariq Farooq said that they would initiate consultations with leaders of all political parties for the formation of consensus on holding early elections.

Flanked by senior party figures including Barrister Iftikhar Gillani, Noreen Arif, Dr Mustafa Bashir Abbasi, and Syed Murtaza Ali Gillani, they maintained that a fresh public mandate was the only democratic way to pull the region out of the current crisis and allow a legitimate government to assume charge in accordance with the people`s will.

The PML-N leaders also stressed the urgent need to restore the functionality of constitutional institutions in AJK, particularly the Election Commission, which currently lacks a chief election commissioner and other statutory members, rendering it unable to perform its duties.

Mr Haider alleged that the current assembly had been engineered to serve ulterior motives, noting that two prime ministers had been replaced in just twoyears a development that contributed to the constitutional and administrative disarray.

He said that after the disqualification of former premier Sardar Tanveer Ilyas by the court, an `unpopular and non-ideological` figure had been installed as prime minister, with even PML-N lawmakers compelled to vote for him at the behest of the central leadership.

He went on to accuse the current dispensation of allowing issues to fester to the point of tragedy, claiming that four lives, including that of a police official, had been lost due to mishandling of public grievances an unprecedented occurrence in AJK`s recent history.

He also blamed the prime minister for centralising authority and refusing to consult even coalition partners on crucial decisions. `This government thrives on crisis and chaos,` he alleged, `and appears determined to survive by deepening instability rather than resolving it.

Mr Haider said that a sense of frustra-tion was mounting not only within PML-N ranks but also across all political parties.

Answering a question, former senior minister Tariq Farooq accused PM Haq of undermining the system through divisive and factional politics.

`Institutional trust is eroding, the administrative machinery is paralysed, and a climate of confusion, unrest, and near-anarchy has emerged,` he said. `The only beneficiary of this orchestrated disorder is the prime minister himself.

He asserted that the demand for early elections was backed by the party`s regional president, Shah Ghulam Qadir, currently abroad, as well as the broader party leadership and cadre.

`The PML-N reaffirms its firm resolve to defend the ideological identity of the liberated territory, restore public confidence in democratic institutions, and protect Pakistan`s national interests at all costs,` Mr Farooq said. `We will not allow this region to be handed over to chaos, conspiracies, or corrupt ambitions.