Independents claim all seats in Abbottabad’By Syed Kosar Naqvi

ABBOTTABAD: The independent candidates supported by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) won both the national and all the four provincial assembly seats in the Abbottabad district.

According to unofficial election results issued by the returning officers, the younger son of former federal Minister Amanullah Khan Jadoon and erstwhile MNA Ali Khan Madoon retained his national assembly seat NA-17 while Ali Asghar Khan, the son of late air chief air chief Asghar Khan, managed to win from NA-16 Abbottabad.

Those who failed to secure seats included former chief minister and governor Sardar Mahtab Ahmad Khan, former deputy speaker of National Assembly Murtaza Javed Abbasi, erstwhile MPA Aurangzeb Nalotha and former Senator Barrister Javed Abbassi.

Former speaker of the KP Assembly and central vice-president of PTI Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani retained his seat.Aurangzeb Nalotha of PMLN, who had won his seat in the last two elections, could not emerge victorious this time.

The visit by PMLN organizer Maryam Nawaz could not make any impact on the voters as she was the only central leader who had addressed a big public meeting.In NA-16, an independent candidate, Ali Asghar Khan, managed to defeat Sardar Mahtab Ahmad Khan and Murtaza Javed Abbasi.

Ali Asghar Khan secured 104,993 while his close rival Murtaza Javed Abbasi of PMLN got 86,276 votes. Sardar Mahtab got 23,385 votes.

Similarly, in NA-17 , Ali Khan Jadoon defeated Mohabat Awan of PMLN where Ali Khan Jadoon (an independent) retained his seat as in 2018 he had won on the PTI ticket by securing 97,177 votes. His close rival was Mohabat Awan who got 44,522 votes.

The provincial assembly seat PK-42 was claimed by PTI-backed independent candidate Nazeer Abbasi. He secured 35,443 votes against his rival Sardar Fareed Ahmed of PMLN who got 27,623 votes.

In PK-43, Rajab Ali Khan Abbasi, another PTI-backed candidate defeated close rival Javed Abbasi.

Rajab Ali Khan Abbasi won the seat by securing 41,242 against his rival Barrister Javed Abbassi who got 20,869 votes.

Khalid Rehman of PMLN got 20,733 votes.

Similarly, PK-44 seat Iftikhar Ahmed Khan Jadoon won the seat by defeating former MPA Aurangzeb Nalotha.

Iftikhar Ahmed Jadoon won the seat by securing 34,867 votes against his rival from PMLN Sardar Aurangzeb Nalhota who secured 32,585 votes.

The PK-45 seat was won by former provincial assembly speaker Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani, who defeated Arshad Awan of PMLN.

Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani, who contested election as an independent candidate retained his seat by securing 50143 votes against his rival Muhammad Arshad of PMLN who got 27,498 votes.

It may be pointed out that the Abbottabad district was considered a stronghold of PMLN but the party faced a setback and all the national and well as provincial assembly seats were won by PTI-backed independent candidates.