- Haji Gulbar Khan turned out to be an absconder in fake cheque case.
- He is a candidate for the Chief Minister slot in Gilgit Baltistan.
- Gulbar Khan is leading the PTI forward bloc in GB Assembly.
GILGIT: Haji Gulbar Khan, the candidate for the Chief Minister slot in Gilgit-Baltistan, turned out to be a fugitive after a case against him was revealed, BOL News reported.
A court in Mardan has declared Haji Gulbar Khan an absconder after being summoned in a case related to the submission of a fake cheque.
The court issued an arrest warrant after he failed to appear despite being summoned. Gulbar Khan is wanted by Mardan Police after being declared a fugitive based on the arrest warrant.
Senator Faisal Saleem, a resident of Mardan, lodged the FIR in July 2015 after Gulbar Khan allegedly submitted a fake cheque worth Rs2.2 million.
Haji Gulbar Khan is a candidate of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) forward bloc in the GB Assembly. He is supported by three members of the Pakistan Muslim League -Nawaz (PML-N).
The polling for the election of the new chief minister will be held tomorrow (Thursday) in the Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly.
Four candidates have filed nomination papers for the election of the new chief minister. The slot became vacant after the disqualification of PTI’s Khalid Khurshid Khan.
The candidates include Raja Azam Khan, Javed Ali Manwa, Raja Zakaria, and Haji Gulbar Khan. Among them, Raja Azam, Javed Ali Manwa and Raja Zakaria dissociated themselves from PTI and formed a like-minded group.
No member belonging to any party of the Pakistan Democratic Alliance (PDM) has filed nomination papers for the CM seat. Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has not yet announced its support for any candidate.
Former Health Minister Haji Gulbar Khan formed a forward bloc and emerged as a candidate for the slot of chief minister. He claimed to have the support of more than seven PTI members of the GB Assembly.
Last week, the Gilgit-Baltistan Supreme Appellate Court (SAC) issued an order to delay the election for the new chief minister, citing procedural irregularities.
Governor GB Syed Mehdi Shah stopped the election after the court’s order. Haji Gulbar Khan requested the court to stop the election.
The region’s top court issued a statement halting the election. Chief Judge Justice Sardar Muhammad Shamim Khan ordered that the election be adjourned.
The Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly has 33 members. The total number of PTI members in the GB Assembly has reduced to 21 after the disqualification of Khalid Khurshid Khan.
The PPP has five members and PML-N has three members, while Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM) and JUI-F have one member each. There is also one independent member.
The elections were supposed to be held on July 5 but dramatic scenes occurred after police was deployed outside the assembly building and lawmakers were prevented from entering to cast their vote.
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