Sultan Mehmood Chaudhry is a politician who hails from

Azad Kashmir Azad Jammu and Kashmir (; ), abbreviated as AJK and colloquially referred to as simply Azad Kashmir, is a region administered by Pakistan as a nominally self-governing entitySee: * * * and constituting the western portion of the larger Ka ...

. He served as

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

between July 1996 to July 2001 and is currently serving as the President of

since 25 August 2021.

Early life

Sultan Mehmood Chaudhry is the son of the late Kashmiri leader Chaudhary Noor Hussain Jatt who also founded

Azad Muslim Conference The All India Azad Muslim Conference ( ur, ), commonly called the Azad Muslim Conference (literally, "Independent Muslim Conference"), was an organisation of nationalist Muslims in India. Its purpose was advocacy for composite nationalism and a uni ...

along with

Sardar Ibrahim Khan Sardar Muhammad Ibrahim Khan (22 April 1915 – 31 July 2003) was the key instigator of the 1947 Poonch Rebellion in the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir in British India and the later establishment of Azad Kashmir under Pakistani adminis ...

but after Sardar Ibrahim Khan left the party, he led it alone. He belongs to a

Jatt Jatt may refer to: * Jat people, a social group of the Indian subcontinent * Jatt, Israel Jatt ( ar, جت; he, גַ'ת) is an Arab local council in the Triangle area of Haifa District in Israel. In it had a population of . History Antiquity ...

family and his family has contributions in the movement for a free Jammu and Kashmir. He has also been a member of

Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly The Legislative Assembly of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, also known as AJK Legislative Assembly, is a unicameral legislature of elected representatives of the Pakistani administered state of Azad Kashmir, which is located in Muzaffarabad, the capita ...

. After completing his education, he came back from England to Mirpur in 1987 and joined his father's party

and contested elections and won.

Political Career

In the second elections there, Chaudhry Muhammad Rasheed, Chaudhry Khadim Hussain and Chaudhry Yasin won. Then Sultan Mehmood merged his party with the Liberation league and became its President. Later he left that party and joined

Pakistan Peoples Party The Pakistan People's Party ( ur, , ; PPP) is a centre-left, social-democratic political party in Pakistan. It is currently the third largest party in the National Assembly and second largest in the Senate of Pakistan. The party was founded ...

and became president of Pakistan People's Party for

. Then he became Prime Minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. He faced some problems in the PPP which led to him quitting the party. He then founded his own party Peoples Muslim League in 2005 and his party won 5 seats in the Legislative Assembly. Later when

Benazir Bhutto Benazir Bhutto ( ur, بینظیر بُھٹو; sd, بينظير ڀُٽو; Urdu ; 21 June 1953 – 27 December 2007) was a Pakistani politician who served as the 11th and 13th prime minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 t ...

addressed the issue, she apologized and told him to join the party again. He rejoined the

again but won no seats in the AJK legislative assembly. In February 2015, he joined

Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI; ur, , ) is a political party in Pakistan. It was founded in 1996 by Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, who served as the country's prime minister from 2018 to 2022. The PTI is one of the thre ...

and became president of its Azad Kashmir chapter. On 24 November 2019, he became a Member of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly in the by-elections in Mirpur. He owns a shopping plaza in

Rawalpindi Rawalpindi ( or ; Urdu, ) is a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is the fourth largest city in Pakistan after Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad, and third largest in Punjab after Lahore and Faisalabad. Rawalpindi is next to Pakistan's ...

and his family owns brick-making factories. Many of their properties were sealed by

Sardar Abdul Qayyum Sardar Muhammad Abdul Qayyum Khan (also known as ʻAbdul Qayyūm K̲h̲ān, Urdu: سردار محمد عبدالقيوم خان) was a Kashmiri politician who also served as the president and the prime minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). ...

when he was the Prime Minister. He joined Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf on 6 February 2015 and lost the elections for the first time in 25 years on 21 July 2016. He was recently elected as the President of

on 17 August 2021.

References

External links

Office of the Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir
Jat Punjabi people Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Government Gordon College alumni Pakistani barristers Prime Ministers of Azad Kashmir Presidents of Azad Kashmir {{Azad-Kashmir-bio-stub