PMLN clinches 9 out of 14 NA seats, IPP 2

LAHORE:Amidst a heated vote battle and acquisitions of rigging, the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN) and its allied Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) clinched 11 out of 14 seats of the National Assembly constituencies while independents backed by PTI got three seats.

PMLN supremo contested the elections from NA-130 and defeated PTI backed and former provincial health minister Dr Yasmin Rashid. The turnout in this constituency was 52.45%. Nawaz Sharif secured 179,310 votes, Dr Yasmin got 104,485 votes and TLP’s Khurram Riaz got 20,080 votes. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday released the provisional results of 14 constituencies of Lahore and other cities. The results revealed that the highest turnout was 56.26 per cent while the lowest was 35.83 pc. Two major upset took place in the elections as in the first case PTI’s backed independent candidate Sardar Latif Khosa defeated PMLN’s stalwart and former federal minister Khawaja Saad Rafique while in the other case PMLN’s backed IPP candidate Aoun Saqlain defeated PTI-backed independent candidate Salman Akram Raja.

In the election 2024, TLP emerged as the third largest vote taking religio-political party while JI and PPP were far away from TLP in securing the public votes. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was the PPP’s only candidate who took 15,005 votes while the rest of the party’s candidates remained under 10,000 votes. As per detailed provisional results released by the ECP, there were 329 polling stations in NA-117 where total registered votes were 520,453 (Male 282,202/Female 238,251) out of which 234,042 (Female 91,892/Male 142,150) votes were casted. The turnout in this constituency was 44.97 %. IPP’s President Abdul Aleem Khan won this seat by securing 91,489 votes while the runner up was PTI backed independent candidate Ali Ijaz 80,838 and third position was secured by TLP’s Saifur Rehman who secured 38,161 votes. PPPP’s candidate Asif Hashmi got 3,950 votes and JI’s candidate Jahangir Ahmed got 3,163. In NA-118 total registered votes were 735,251 (Male 394,224/Female 341,027) with 467 polling stations. Out of the total registered votes, the casted votes were 263,461 (164,805 male/female 98656) and the turnout in this constituency was 35.83 %.

The former chief minister Punjab Hamza secured this seat by securing 105,960 votes after a tough competition with PTI backed independent candidate Aliya Hamza who got 100,803 votes. TLP’s Abid Hussain secured 36,269 votes, JI’s candidate got 4124 votes and PPPP’s Shahid Abbas got 2,530. PMLN’s Chief Organiser Maryum Nawaz won from NA-119 who secured 83,855 votes against PTI-backed independent candidate Shehzad Farooq who got 68,376 votes while the TLP’s Muhammad Zaheer got 30,525 votes. PPPP’s Iftikhar Shahid got 2,056 votes and JI’s Zulfiqar Ali got 2,435 votes. The total registered votes in this constituency were 520,829 (male 277,172/female 243,657) out of which 200,994 (123,708 male/female 77286) votes were polled reflecting a turnout of 38.59 %, which was the second lowest in the 14 constituencies of Lahore.

Former Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq won from NA-120 by securing 68,143 votes against PTI backed Usman Hamza who got 49,222 votes while the TLP candidate Rashid Ali got 24,160 votes, PPPP’s Munir Ahmed got 8,047 and JI’s Rashid Ahmed got 3,725 votes. Total polled votes in this constituency were 163,139 (100,667 male/female 62,472 and the turnout was 44.94%.

In a tough battle, PMLN’s Sheikh Rohail Asghar lost his seat to PTI-backed independent candidate Wasim Qadir who secured 78,703 votes against Sheikh Rohail’s 70,597 votes in NA-121. Turnout in this constituency was 40.08 %. Muhammad Yousuf of TLP got 24,882 votes, Iftikhar Shahid of PPPP got 2,246 votes and Amir Sidiqqui of JI got 3,424 votes.

In NA-122, PTI backed independent candidate Sardar Latif Khan Khosa defeated PMLN’s stalwart and former federal minister with a very high margin. Khosa got 117,109 votes, Khawaja Saad Rafique got 77,907 votes, Muhammad Imtiaz of TLP got 15,469 votes, Atif Rafique of PPPP got 4,735 votes and Zeba Basharat of JI got 4,687. Turn out in this constituency was 40.54 % and total polled votes were 231,310 (135,082 male/ female 96,228).

From NA-123, the PMLN President and former Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif got 63,953 votes and defeated PTI backed independent candidate Afzal Azeem who got 48,486 votes. Amjad Naeem of TLP got 20,156 votes, Zia ul Haq of PPPP got 5698 votes and one of the JI’s main leaders Liaqat Baloch got 3207 votes. The turnout in this constituency was 47.08%.

In NA-124 the voter turnout was 41.76% and PMLN’s Rana Mubashir Iqbal won this seat by securing 55,387 votes against PTI backed Zameer Ahmed who got 43,594. Irfan Ali Bhatti of TLP got 18,101 votes and Muhammad Javed of JI got 2534 votes.

PMLN’s candidate Muhammad Afzal Khokar got 65,102 votes in NA-125 where voting held in 214 polling stations and the turnout was 48.12%. PTI backed Javed Umar got 51,144 votes, Khummar Shahzad of TLP got 25,490 votes, Chaudhary Abdul Ghufoor of PPPP got 11,297 votes and Zabiullah of JI got 2712 votes.

In NA-126 Saif ul Malook Khokhar of PMLN won the seat by getting 67,117 votes against his arch rival Malik Tauqeer Abbas Khokhar who got 60,479 votes. Turnout in this constituency was 44%. TLP’s candidate Muhammad Ahmed Majeed got 10,123 votes, PPPP’s Amjad Ali got 3068 votes and Ameerul Azeem, JI’s another important leader who was contesting from this constituency got 7421 votes.

The most observed constituency of Lahore was NA-127 where Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was contesting against PMLN’s Atta Tarar and PTI backed Zaheer Abbas Khokhar. There were 337 polling stations with total votes 527,044 (male 273,014/female 254,030) and polled votes were 219,623 (Male 129,817/Female 89,806) reflecting a turnout of 41.67%.

Attah Tarar got 98,210 votes, Zaheer Abbas got 82,230 votes, Bilawal Bhutto got 15,005 votes, Matloob Ahmed of TLP got 12,912 votes and JI’s Ahsan Ullah Waqas got 5291.

NA-128 was also one of the hot constituencies of the provincial capital where PTI backed Salman Akram Raja gave a tough competition to the PMLN’s backed IPP’s candidate Aoun Saqlain. Highest turnout of 56.26 % was observed in the constituency as polled votes were 381,456.

Aoun Saqlain got 172,576 votes against Salman Akram Raja’s 159,024 votes. This was also the highest number of votes secured in any constituency of Lahore. Asim Irshad of TLP got 14,654 votes, Ghulam Muhaiyudin of PPPP got 4373 votes and Liaqat Baloch of JI got 9246.

In NA-129 PTI backed Mian Muhammad Azhar got 103,718 votes and defeated PMLN’s Muhammad Nouman who got 71,540 votes. Bilal Liaqat of TLP got 19,382 votes, Aurangzeb Burki of PPPP got 3005 and Ajmal Rashid of JI got 4194 votes.