MQM bags most seats in city’s cantonment polls

Karachi
The Muttahida Qaumi Movement bagged most of the seats in the local government elections held in the Karachi’s six cantonment boards after a long gap of 17 years.
Besides, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf were also able grab at least five seats each in the race for 31 councillor slots in 31 wards of the six cantonment areas.
The Pakistan People’s Party, the Jamaat-e-Islami and independent candidates were also able to fetch some seats. Overall, there are 427,566 registered voters in the six cantonment areas and 193 contenders were in run for 32 councillor seats. However, as one contestant had already been declared successful unopposed, the polls were held for 31 seats. There were 928 polling booths at 237 polling stations.
According to unofficial results, MQM’s Bashir won in Ward 1 of the Karachi Cantonment Board with 1,310 votes, independent candidate Chaudhry Nasir was victorious in Ward 2 with 284 votes, independent candidate M Ayub was grabbed the Ward No 3 seat with 419 votes, MQM’s Rubeena won in Ward 4 with 683 votes and MQM’s Akram bagged the Ward 5 seat with 2,283 votes.
In the Manora Cantonment Board, JI’s Abdul Majeed won in Ward 1 with 302 votes and
independent candidate Fazal Wahab was victorious in Ward 2 with 327 votes.
In the Clifton Cantonment Board, PTI’s M Ahmed won in Ward 1 with 178 votes,
PPP’s M Shafeeq bagged the Ward 2 seat with 1,565 votes, PTI’s Ameer Shah was successful in Ward 3 with 486 votes, PTI’s M Jameel fetched the seat in Ward 4 with 460 votes, PPP’s Abdul Hameed grabbed the seat in Ward 5 with 958 votes, MQM’s Zakauddin was successful in Ward 6 with 1,599 votes, MQM’s Shahid Sheikh won in Ward 7 with 1,793 votes, JI’s Zakaria Mehanti emerged successful in Ward 8 with 615 votes, PTI’s Aziz Ul Haq won in Ward 9 but his number of votes could not be ascertained and PTI’s M Aslam stood victorious in Ward 10 with 1,454 votes.
In the Malir Cantonment Board, PML-N’s Fida Hussain won in Ward No 1 bagging 1,400 votes, MQM’s Abul Hasan emerged victorious in Ward 2 with 1,022 votes
and independent candidate Lt Col (retd) M Raza won in Ward 3 with 266 votes.
In the Faisal Cantonment Board, MQM’s Basharat Elahi won in Ward 1 with 1,198 votes, PML-N’s Ali Ashiq was successful in Ward 2 with 1,200 votes, PML-N’s M Faizul Abbasi emerged victorious in Ward 3 with 800 votes, , Kashif Khan of the MQM won in Ward 5 with 1,594 votes; Shahadatullah of the MQM stood victorious in Ward 6 with 1,172 votes; Zeeshan Bashir Farooqui of the MQM won in Ward 8 with 2,374 votes and Fasih-ur-Rahman of the PML-N was successful in Ward No 9 with 500 votes.
The results of Ward 4 and 7 could not be ascertained.
In the Korangi Cantonment Board, PML-N’s Nusratullah won in Ward No 1 with 1,265 votes.
The voting ratio was very low in the first half of the day but considerably increased in the second half. Polling started at 9am and continued till 5pm without any break. The first vote was cast at 10 in the morning.
Polling was scheduled to start at 8am but delayed for two hours in many places as the election staff arrived late at the polling stations. Both Rangers and army were present both in and outside the stations. The traditional election fever was lacking in many cantonment boards and the voter turnout was quite low. Cell phones were not allowed inside polling stations.
Rangers director general Maj Gen Bilal Akbar visited the six cantonment boards to review the arrangements and the law and order situation.
For the five wards of the Karachi Cantonment Board, 19 polling stations were set up. The number of registered voters there is 35,679 and 38 polling booths were set up each for women and men. A total of 24 candidates were in the run to elect five councillors. The area includes Doli Khatta, Saddar, Jinnah hospital and Bizerta Line
For Clifton Cantonment Board, 82 candidates were in the race for 10 councillor seats.
There are 142,844 registered voters and 73 polling stations with 280 polling booths were set up.
Clifton Cantonment includes Kala Pul, Railway Colony, Delhi Colony and PNT colony
In Faisal Cantonment Board, 43 candidates in 10 wards were running for 10 councillor seats. This board has the highest numbers of voters – 154,053 – and 73 polling stations with 292 booths were set up.
In the Malir Cantonment Board, 24 candidates were competing for three councillor seats. There was a low voter turnout - around 15 percent only. Just 577 votes were cast till 1pm.
In the Manora Cantonment Board, no political or religious party had nominated their candidate. Seven independent candidates contested the elections. The number of registered voters in the area is 2,516.
In the Korangi Cantonment Board, there are 17,949 registered voters. As a JI candidate had already returned unopposed at one of the two seats in Korangi Cantonment, 12 contestants were in the run for the remaining seat.