Sharif's party wins 24 of 34 seats in Pakistan-administered Kashmir election

Reserved seats for displaced Kashmiris at center of boycott dispute

ISLAMABAD — Candidates backed by twice-elected former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N party won 24 of the 34 legislative assembly seats decided in the first two phases of voting in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, the regional election commission said Wednesday. The result puts the party on course to form the next regional government and marks its return to power in the territory after a decade.

Regional government and election officials said turnout exceeded 56% in Muzaffarabad and surpassed 50% in many other areas. Raja Shakeel, a spokesman for the regional election commission, said voting for the remaining 11 seats is scheduled for Aug. 10 and that the elections are being held in three phases because of security concerns and heavy monsoon rains that complicated campaigning.

Weeks of protests preceded the vote, centered on 12 seats reserved in the legislative assembly for people displaced from Indian-controlled Kashmir since the end of British colonial rule. The Joint Awami Action Committee, or JAAC, argued the seats give disproportionate political influence to people living outside Pakistan-administered Kashmir and demanded their abolition. The regional government banned the group, citing security and public-order concerns.

The dispute intensified in June when the region’s Supreme Court ruled the seats are protected under the constitution and cannot be abolished without a constitutional amendment. The seats were created to ensure representation for people displaced from Indian-controlled Kashmir who settled elsewhere in Pakistan because the territory lacked the capacity to accommodate them. Many have lived in Pakistan for decades, while others later moved to Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

JAAC supporters repeatedly clashed with police ahead of Sunday’s vote, and authorities alleged that members of the Pakistani Taliban had infiltrated the protests. The JAAC has not responded to the allegations. Residents said they voted despite fearing violence, and analysts said the election reinforced public confidence in the democratic process, with voters choosing to cast ballots despite protests, violence and the boycott campaign.

Sharif congratulated the winning candidates in a statement.

Pakistan and India each administer part of Kashmir but claim the Himalayan region in its entirety. The nuclear-armed neighbors have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir since gaining independence from Britain in 1947.

The government said it has accepted 36 of the JAAC’s 38 demands and that the reserved-seats issue can only be resolved by the assembly. The JAAC, formed in 2023, demands greater political rights for the people of Kashmir.