Steep challenge

Syed Iftikhar Ali Gillani has been elected as the seventeenth prime minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. As Dawn tells it, the forty-six year old barrister secured the position on Friday with thirty votes from the PML-N party. In his inaugural speech, Gillani pledged to digitize the economy and improve healthcare and education, though he currently leads an incomplete legislative assembly with seven seats still vacant. His appointment comes amid allegations of electoral rigging and internal party resistance, leaving the new prime minister with the urgent task of restoring stability to the region.

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