MIRPUR  (AJK)
The AJK Supreme Court accepted an application of six sitting AJK MLAs, allowing them to become party in a petition appeal filed by Sardar Gul-e-Khandan vs Chief election Commissioner and others in 2011.
In the interim orders, AJK SC full bench comprising Chief Justice Muhammad Azam Khan, Justice Muhammad Ibrahim Zia and Justice Raja Saeed Akram Khan, while accepting the application, observed “after perusal of record and hearing the counsel for the parties, we are of the view that we have already arrayed the AJK Legislative Assembly as party in the line of respondents. The applicants are elected members of the Azad Jammu Kashmir Legislative Assembly on the seats reserved for Kashmiri refugees settled in Pakistan”.
The court declared that since the applicants (all ministers in sitting AJK government) including Azher Hussain Gillani, Abdul Salam Butt, Abdul Majid Khan, Muhammad Hussain Sargala, Muhammad Akbar Ibrahim, Tahir Khokhar and Saleem Butt, are allowed to become as party in the petition. The applicants have been ordered to file concise statement within two weeks.
The applicants requested the AJK apex court for declaring them as party in the line of respondents on the ground that they are elected members of the AJK Legislative Assembly on the seats reserved for Jammu Kashmir refugees settled in Pakistan.
“In the writ petition and in the appeal, the provisions of AJK Legislative Assembly election ordinance have been challenged. The writ petition and appeal directly affects their rights, therefore, they are necessary party”, the apex court says in its order.
Sardar Gul-e-Khandan, an ex MLA and minister, and candidate in 2011 elections to the AJK Legislative Assembly from Neelam Valley had challenged the acceptance of nomination papers of his rival candidate Shah Ghulam Qadir in the Neelam valley constituency because of his (Qadir) being the Kashmiri refugee settled in Pakistan, in the High Court of Azad Jammu Kashmir.  The learned AJK HC had declared in the case that Jammu & Kashmir refugees settled in Pakistan can take part in the elections to the AJK Legislative Assembly.