Former Azad Jammu and Kashmir president Raja Zulqarnain dies — Dawn
Former Azad Jammu and Kashmir president Raja Muhammad Zulqarnain Khan has died in a hospital in Islamabad after a brief illness. He was 93, Dawn reports.
The authorities of Azad Jammu and Kashmir declared Sunday an official day of mourning. The AJK flag is to be flown at half-mast, while the politician’s burial with state honours is planned in his native town of Kasguma in Bhimber district after the funeral prayer at 11:00.
Political career
Raja Zulqarnain was born on March 15, 1933. He entered politics in 1960–1961 as an associate of former Azad Jammu and Kashmir president K. H. Khurshid. In 1962, when Khurshid founded the Jammu Kashmir Liberation League, Zulqarnain was appointed the party’s founding secretary-general.
Before the first general elections under the parliamentary system in 1975, he joined the Pakistan Peoples Party and was elected to the Legislative Assembly from Samahni. The politician later joined the Muslim Conference, won the 1985 election from Bhimber and served in Sardar Sikandar Hayat’s cabinet for five years.
More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.
In 1991, Zulqarnain returned to the assembly and spent another five years as a member of Sardar Abdul Qayum Khan’s cabinet. In 1996, he was elected to the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Council.
Presidency and condolences
In August 2006, the Muslim Conference elected Raja Zulqarnain as president of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. He held the post until August 2011.
In April 2026, a delegation from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz invited him to join the party. The following month, the politician’s son, Babar Ali Zulqarnain, announced his father’s decision to join PML-N at a public gathering in Bhimber and was appointed the party’s vice president.
Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Tariq Farooq called Zulqarnain’s death a great loss for Jammu and Kashmir’s political, parliamentary and public circles. Former Azad Jammu and Kashmir prime minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas also expressed condolences over the politician’s death.
