The Gilgit-Baltistan 2026 elections, originally scheduled for January, are delayed due to severe winter conditions and the upcoming budget session. A caretaker government, led by Chief Minister Yar Muhammad Nasir, currently manages administrative affairs, though its tenure may be extended until October to protect the vital summer tourist season. Politically, the landscape is shifting as traditional parties like the PPP and PML-N face challenges from the new Awaam Pakistan party and regional groups like the Awami Action Committee. Experts predict a fragmented mandate, likely resulting in another coalition government for the region.
Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) is currently under a caretaker-setup and the major task at its hands is to prepare for the next assembly elections. It has to be noted that the term of the previous government ended on 24 November 2025 and the Election Commission of Gilgit-Baltistan (ECGB) had set 24 January 2026, as the election date. However, the ECGB, towards the end of December, announced a delay mainly citing harsh winter climate as the primary reason. This article tries to understand why a new date was not announced & why there is a delay in the elections?
Caretaker Government
The caretaker government comprises 14 caretaker cabinet members (12 ministers and two advisors), headed by caretaker Chief Minister Justice (Retired) Yar Muhammad Nasir. He was appointed to the position by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on 25 November 2025, and officially took his oath of office on 26 November 2025. The rest of the members were sworn in on 6 January 2026, to assist the CM in overseeing administrative affairs. The caretaker government’s main mandate is to conduct the general elections and ensure a smooth transition. They do not have any administrative or financial powers.
GB faces harsh winter in January and most of the activities have come to a standstill. The main highways connecting it to Islamabad are blocked due to heavy snowfall. If elections would have taken place in January, which was peak winter, people, especially in the far corners of the regions, might have faced difficulties in reaching the election booths, impacting the voting patterns. It is for this reason that all political parties submitted a letter to the ECGB to postpone the elections till the spring season.
 According to local sources in Baltistan, although it is true that the elections were postponed due to the harsh weather conditions, the fact that there is no election date announced yet indicates that the caretaker government might rule for a comparatively longer term. It has to be noted that the month of June will be the budget session in Pakistan and the month of July-September are peak tourist seasons in GB. There is a possibility, therefore, that the Federal government might extend the tenure of the caretaker government and give them some administrative powers during the budget session. Also, the government would not like to disturb the tourist season in GB because it is the only time the people can do some business. Therefore, there is a chance that the elections will take place in October.
Elections, Parties & Campaigning
There are a total of 33 seats in the legislative assembly out of which 24 are general seats, and the members are voted directly by the public. Six seats are reserved for women and three are carved out for the technocrats and professionals. The members for the latter two categories are indirectly elected through proportional representation. To form a government, a party or coalition needs at least 17 seats. These consistencies are spread across three main districts, Gilgit (Gilgit, Hunza, Nagar, & Ghizer), Baltistan (Skardu, Ghanche, Shigar, & Kharmang) and Diamer (Diamer & Astore). It has to be noted that two new districts namely Gupis-Yasin and Roundu have been created administratively since the last census, but they are still grouped under the original 24 electoral constituencies for the 2026 general elections.
The current mood in GB is that of election campaigning and reach-out programmes. All the political parties have erected their tents in far off villages and towns in the region and are conducting Shumaliyati programmes (induction programmes), in which they are trying to sign people up for their respective parties. Generally, in winters, most of the prominent people from GB move to Islamabad, Lahore or Karachi to escape the harsh winters but this time it is reported that most of them are tented in the region busy in their election campaigns.
It has to be noted that in September 2025, PTI formally terminated the membership of 11 to 13 of its legislators, including then CM Haji Gulbar Khan in the GB Assembly which was in turn triggered by the disqualification of former CM and PTI regional President Khalid Khurshid Khan in 2023 due to a fake degree case. Gulbar Khan led a dissident group of PTI lawmakers often called the “forward bloc” and formed a coalition government with PPP & PML-N. Terminated officially from PTI, many of these defectors have been absorbed into PPP and PML-N for the 2026 general elections in GB.
Therefore, the competition is mainly among PML-N, PPP, the PPP “Forward bloc”, and the new debutant party, Awaam Pakistan (AP) launched in July 2024 by former PML-N leaders Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Miftah Ismail. Analysts suggest AP may perform better in areas with cultural or historical ties to Rawalpindi and Murree (Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s stronghold), where his personal influence is strongest.
Local Influences
There is an emergence of new political dynamics and the rise of local pressure groups that are challenging the traditional party structures.The Awami Action Committee (AAC) has emerged as the most significant new power player in the 2026 elections. They are leveraging the 2024-25 wheat subsidy protests and electricity crisis to either back independent candidates or influence voters away from mainstream national parties. On top of it there is a growing trend of “GB-first”, a sentiment leading to the emergence and registration of smaller localized groups like the GB Ladakhi Groups in Baltistan that is pushing for cultural and linguistic representation that most of the traditional parties often tend to overlook.
Another group is the Balwaristan National Front (BNF-Naji), led by Nawaz Khan Naji, it is seeing a resurgence in 2026 elections as voters move towards parties that prioritise regional autonomy over federal alignment.
In summary, 2026 in GB will be an election year that will see a possible extension of the caretaker government by the Federal Government in Islamabad and postponement of elections till October 2026. The caretaker government might also be granted some administrative power, given the Budget session in June 2026 and the need for it to assume responsibility to run a smooth tourist season in the region. It seems likely that the elections, will yield an assembly without any clear majority for any party, and GB may have to prepare for yet another cocktail of a coalition government with local groups or parties losing their influence to federal parties, who are making a dent in local politics.
*Dr Zainab Akhter is a Researcher at a Project on Pakistan at Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA), New Delhi. The views expressed are her own.
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