MUZAFFARABAD: Former Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) president Raja Mohammad Zulqarnain Khan died at a hospital in Islamabad on Saturday after a brief illness. He was 93.
The AJK government announced a day of official mourning on Sunday, during which the state’s flag would fly at half-mast. It also ordered his burial with full state honours in his native town of Kasguma, Bhimber district, following funeral prayers at 11am on Sunday.
Born on March 15, 1933, Raja Zulqarnain was the son of Khan Bahadur Raja Mohammad Afzal Khan, an ICS officerfrom the Chib Rajput tribe who served in Maharaja Hari Singh’s administration. He was granted an estate in present-day Bhimber district.
Raja Zulqarnain received his early education in Srinagar and Delhi before joining Lawrence College, Ghora Gali, at the age of 13. His contemporaries there included former prime minister Zafarullah Jamali and former Balochistan chief minister Sardar Akbar Bugti. After graduating from Government College, Lahore, in 1955, he entered the construction business in 1958 by establishing United Builders in Karachi. The company subsequently undertook projects in Pakistan, AJK, UAE and Iraq.
Raja Zulqarnain entered politics in 1960-61 as an associate of KH Khurshid, former AJK president and private secretary to Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. He was elected chairman of his native union council, Kasguma,in the first elections held under the Basic Democracies system introduced by Gen Ayub Khan in Pakistan and subsequently adopted in AJK under Mr Khurshid. When Mr Khurshid founded the Jammu Kashmir Liberation League in 1962, he appointed Raja Zulqarnain its founding secretary general.He remained deeply influenced byhis mentor’s political outlook and personal manner.
Ahead of AJK’s first general elections under the parliamentary system in 1975, Raja Zulqarnain joined the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and was elected to the Legislative Assembly from Samahni. Following the restoration of political activities after Gen Ziaul Haq’s martial law, he joined the Muslim Conference (MC) and won the 1985 election from Bhimberon its ticket. He served in Sardar Sikandar Hayat’s cabinet for five years.
In 1990, he lost the assembly election to PPP candidate Chaudhry Sohbat Ali. He returned to the assembly in 1991 and served in Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan’s cabinet for five years. In 1996, the MC secured his election to the AJK Council.
In the general elections held that year, he backed Chaudhry Tariq Farooq, who was elected to the assembly for the first time. Their political association, however, ended amid local rivalries ahead of the 2001 election, when Mr Farooq contested as an independent and defeated Raja Zulqarnain.
In 2006, Raja Zulqarnain opposed Mr Farooq, the MC nominee, helping Chaudhry Anwarul Haq win his first assembly seat by a narrow margin. In August that year, the Muslim Conference elected him AJK president, a position he held until August 2011.
He continued to support Mr Haq in the 2011 and 2016 elections, both of which Mr Farooq won. In 2021, Mr Haq, then a PTI candidate, secured his second victory with Raja Zulqarnain’s support. The former president subsequently became disenchanted with Mr Haq.
In April this year, a PML-N delegation called on Raja Zulqarnain and invited him to formally join the party. His son, Babar Ali Zulqarnain, announced his father’s decision to join the PML-Nat a public meeting in Bhimber the following month and was appointed a party vice president.
In his condolence message, AJK Legislative Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Tariq Farooq described Raja Zulqarnain’s death as a major loss for the political, parliamentary and social circles of Jammu and Kashmir.
Former AJK premier Sardar Tanveer Ilyas also expressed deep sorrow over Raja Zulqarnain’s death.
Published in Dawn, November 8th, 2026
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