PPP chairman gives the nod to Advocate Amjad Hussain for post of GB chief minister

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Sunday announced Advocate Amjad Hussain as the party’s candidate for the post of Gilgit-Baltistan chief minister.

The announcement came a day after the PPP — which emerged as the leading party during the recent general elections — announced it would form a government in GB with the support of the PML-N.

Local PPP and PML-N leaders have agreed on a proposed power-sharing formula under which the region’s chief minister would be from the PPP, while the governor of GB, as well as the leader of the opposition, will be from the PML-N.

According to an official statement shared on X, “Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has decided to appoint PPP’s provincial president, Advocate Amjad Hussain, as the chief minister of Gilgit-Baltistan.”

It added that the PPP chairman also had a telephonic conversation with Hussain.

“The PPP chairman issued instructions to Advocate Amjad regarding government formation and the implementation of the constitutional and economic rights of the people,” the statement said.

Who is Amjad Hussain?

Advocate Amjad Hussain, who has been the PPP Gilgit-Baltistan president since 2016, won a seat during the recent general elections from GBA-I.

A prominent lawyer, Hussain, is well-versed in the region’s legal constitutional issues. He also served as a member of the GB Assembly from 2020 to 2025, and was a member of the GB Council from 2009 to 2014.

He is the only politician in the region who contested the GB Assembly elections from two constituencies — GBA-I Gilgit and GBA-IV Nagar — in the 2020 GB general elections, when the PPP was in the opposition in the federal government. He won two seats though he later vacated the seat won from Nagar.

He also remained opposition leader in the GB Assembly from 2020 to 2023 during PTI’s Khalid Khurshid-led government.

He was also the mover of the GB Land Reforms Act, passed by the GB Assembly in 2025, which sought to make locals landowners.

His political movement, Haq-e-Hukumat (Right to Rule) and Haq-e-Malkiat (Right to Ownership), started in 2016, which later became the PPP election manifesto.

Hussain has been a proponent of provincial status for the region. ...