ISLAMABAD: A full bench of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) High Court dismissed Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas on Tuesday after finding him guilty of contempt of court, making him the first AJK premier in history to be dismissed for the offense. 

AJK is administered by Pakistan as a nominally self-governing entity and constitutes the western portion of the larger Kashmir region, which has been the subject of a dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947. 

The Muzaffarabad high court and supreme court on Monday separately issued notices to Ilyas, asking him to appear before the court and explain his “highly derogatory and indecent language” in public meetings and speeches against judges over the past few months. The notice also accused him of threatening judges. 

According to local media, at a function in Islamabad on Saturday, Ilyas indirectly blamed the judiciary for affecting the performance of his government and interfering in the domain of the executive through the grant of stay orders. 

Ilyas was indicted for contempt of court today, Tuesday, during his appearance before the high court. After charges were formally framed against him, Ilyas tendered an unconditional apology to the court, Pakistani news channel Geo News reported. 

“I apologize unconditionally if any of my words hurt the judge,” Ilyas said, according to Pakistani news channel Geo News. The court sentenced him till the rising of the court, rendering him disqualified from the legislative assembly. 

Ilyas, a member of former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, was elected 14th prime minister of Azad Kashmir on April 18, 2022 unopposed. Former PM Khan nominated Ilyas as the party’s candidate for prime minister after his predecessor, Abdul Qayyum Khan Niazi, resigned. 

In January 2012, Pakistan’s former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gillani was dismissed by the country’s then chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in a judgment that was deemed controversial by political and legal experts. The top judge found Gillani guilty of contempt of court for refusing to comply with a court order to reopen dormant fraud investigations against then president Asif Ali Zardari.