Abdul Qayyum Niazi

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi was sworn in as the 13th prime minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir on August 4.

Abdul Qayyum Niazi was born in Darra Sher Khan, a village in Battal sector. Sardar Niazi, a graduate from Azad Kahsmir University, contested his first election in 1982, at the age of 23, and became the youngest district councilor in his Poonch district.

Niazi joined PTI two years ago after leaving All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference (AJKMC), a party, from which his family was associated for long. Mr Niazi himself contested the first election to the assembly in 2001 as an independent candidate after the AJKMC granted its ticket to someone else.

Niazi is not Abdul Qayyum’s family name, but a pseudonym, his pen name as Shahbaz Gill pointed out in a recent tweet.

Niazi told a local news channel recently that an interesting story is attached to this title asin 1974 in his matriculation class, coincidentally another student was also present with the same name. So when they had to fill the examination forms he chose ‘Niazi’ as his pen-name to differentiate from the other student.