Pakistan-Administered Kashmir's Assembly Elects PML-N's Najeeb Naqi Khan President as Broadband Returns After 99-Day Blackout, Unrest Toll Still Contested

Members of Azad Jammu and Kashmir's 53-seat Legislative Assembly voted September 24, 2026 at the Muzaffarabad secretariat to fill the presidency, vacant since President Sultan Mehmood Chaudhry's death on January 31 — nearly eight months beyond the constitutional deadline. Chief Election Commissioner Justice Ghulam Mustafa Mughal ruled that seven still-vacant seats (voting postponed in two districts on security grounds) did not bar the poll, since the winner needs only 27 of the 46 filled seats' votes; ruling PML-N and its allies control 32. PML-N's Najeeb Naqi Khan was expected to win. The vote came as broadband/DSL service was restored across AJK on September 13 after a 99-day suspension dating to the June 5 ban on the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JKJAAC), though 3G/4G mobile data remained unavailable for several additional days — a partial, phased restoration rather than the full return implied by some September 15-21 reporting that described the blackout as still 'ongoing.' JKJAAC-led protests over the summer, demanding abolition of AJK's 12 refugee-reserved assembly seats, left a death toll still in dispute: residents and rights groups cite over 50 dead, while the AJK government acknowledges at least seven police and paramilitary personnel killed but has not given an overall figure.