Four independent candidates won from Lahore since 1988

LAHORE : Between 1988 to 2018, four independent candidates have so far won from Lahore in the general elections held on party basis while defeating the candidates holding party tickets.

In 1970 and 1977 general elections, the areas falling in present district of Kasur were also part of Lahore district.

Two candidates, including Rana Phool Muhammad and Muhammad Ashiq got elected as MPA in the 1970 general elections while defeating PPP ticket holders, at a time while there was a massive wave of the party founded by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. However, these two constituencies do not pertain to the present precinct of Lahore district for more than four decades now. In the 1985 general elections, Lahore and Kasur were treated as separate districts. The 1985 polls were held on non-party basis, so there was no party ticket holder and no candidate was awarded party symbol. PPP had already boycotted the polls. Eight general elections held between 1988 to 2018 were purely on party basis and political parties fielded their ticket holders with party symbols. In 1988 and 1990, two major contesting political parties were PPP and IJI with the symbols of Arrow and bicycle respectively. Between 1993 till 2018, the noted political parties remained PMLN, PPP, PMLQ, and PTI which were in contest with their respective election symbols like Tiger, Arrow, Bicycle, Bat and Book.

PPP won major chunk of seats from Lahore in 1988 general elections as it won 7 out of 9 National Assembly seats. It also won 14 Punjab Assembly seats out of total 18. No independent candidate could win then. In 1990, IJI won 8 out of total 9 National Assembly seats of Lahore and won all Provincial Assembly seats. In 1993, PMLN again won almost all NA seats except one (NA 100) and won 14 PA seats. No independent won.

However, the winning streak of political parties was broken in 1997 general elections on two seats of Lahore, one NA and one Provincial Assembly seat. Independent candidate Ashiq Dayal emerged victorious from the then NA 100 while defeating PMLN candidate Chaudhry Shaukat and PPP's Khalid Javaid Ghurki. From a Provincial Assembly seat falling under NA 100, Shaukat Butt, another independent candidate won while defeating PMLN and PPP candidates.

This was quite surprising for the people as PMLN had almost made a clean sweep in Punjab but it lost two from its Basecamp.

In the year 2002, a new comer in political arena took everyone by surprise in form of Mian Aslam Iqbal. A former Union Council Nazim of 2001 fielded himself as an Independent candidate from the then PP 148 and defeated joint candidate of PMLN, MMA as well as that of other political parties like PMLQ, PPP and PTI. Mian Aslam Iqbal won the seat with a big margin as an Independent candidate.

In the same 2002 general elections, there is another precedent in which an Independent candidate won. However, his case was different because he was the joint candidate of two parties, including PMLN and MMA but could not get party symbol and had to come up as an Independent. It was JI senior leader late Hafiz Salman Butt.

In the 2002 election, Hafiz Salman Butt was supported by Jamaat-i-Islami and PMLN against the then PMLQ President Mian Muhammad Azhar. Jamaat-i-Islami was a component of MMA whose leadership awarded ticket to Hafiz Abdul Wadood Shahid. PMLN on the other hand wanted Hafiz Salman Butt to contest against Mian Azhar and it had not fielded anyone from this seat. While the MMA candidate refused to withdraw himself, Hafiz Salman Butt could not get the party symbol and had to come up as an Independent candidate on the symbol of 'Star'.

On October 10, 2002 Hafiz Salman Butt as an Independent candidate won this seat and defeated Mian Azhar, the sitting President of PMLQ. In this way, he is amongst the four Independent candidates who have so far won from Lahore between 1988 to 2018 in the polls held on party basis.