Pro-Pakistan political leader Sardar Atiq Ahmad Khan was elected premier of Pakistani Kashmir on Monday and vowed to rebuild the earthquake devastated region, officials said.
Khan secured 35 votes in the 49-member legislative assembly after his Muslim Conference (MC) party won an absolute majority in polls earlier this month to elect a new assembly, they said.
His opponent Sardar Ishaq Zafar, from former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party, secured eight votes.
Khan, son of veteran Kashmir leader Sardar Abdul Qayyum, said reconstruction and rehabilitation of quake-hit areas would be the priority of his government.
A powerful 7.6-magnitude earthquake in October killed more than 73,000 people and displaced around 3.5 million.
"It is the prime objective of the MC government," he said after the swearing in ceremony held in the state capital Muzaffarabad.
Khan's party backs Kashmir's accession to Pakistan and has pledged support for the peace process between Pakistan and India over the disputed region.
Pro-independence parties that do not support the accession of Kashmir to Pakistan were banned from standing in the polls.
The Himalayan state of Kashmir, divided between Pakistan and India and claimed in full by both, has caused two wars between the rival neighbours since their independence from Britain in 1947.
