Eight women cross 0.1m votes mark

ISLAMABAD: Aniqa Mehdi is the only female candidate who pocketed over 0.2 million votes among 12 females, having emerged victorious on NA’s general seats in the last Thursday’s general elections.

Among the male candidates, Jamal Ahsan Khan, an independent, was on the top with 217,427 votes from NA-89, Mianwali.

Out of a dozen returned female candidates, eight of them secured over 0.1m votes with Ms. Mehdi’s securing the highest number.

Independent candidate Aniqa Mehdi ran for NA-67, Hafizabad, and was able to secure 211,039 votes. But her closest rival, Saira Tarar of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz also got a healthy tally of 183,946 (0.184 million) votes. Another interesting aspect of this constituency is that both the winner and runner were females. On all other eleven seats, females defeated their male rivals.

In this constituency of Hafizabad, the turnout was also quite impressive and it was recorded at 57.02, the second highest among the constituencies from where female candidates returned.

However, 13,377 votes were also rejected out of the total 462,239 votes polled and among these, 264,084 were male and 198,155 female voters.

From Sanghar’s NA-209 constituency, Shazia Marri defeated her male rival Muhammad Khan Junejo of Grand Democratic Alliance. Ms Marri got 156,002 and Junejo received 139,604 votes.

Again, from NA-73, Daska, PML-N’s Nosheen Iftikhar and her male opponent Ali Asjad Malhi, an independent candidate, secured over 0.1 million — 112,143 and 104,067 votes respectively.

NA-158, Vehari, is another constituency where winner Tehmina Daultana of PMLN got 111,196 votes and her closest opponent Tahir Iqbal, an independent candidate, secured 103,052 votes. Voters turnout here was 54.41 per cent.

Nafeesa Shah of PPP inflicted the heaviest defeat on veteran politician Syed Ghous Ali Shah of the Grand Democratic Alliance from NA-202, Khairpur; she secured 146,083 votes and he was able to get only 28,613 votes.

Independent candidate Amber Majeed returned from NA-181, Layyah, by receiving 120,499 votes, whereas her closest rival got 95,081 votes while 11,600 votes were rejected. The voter turnout in this constituency was recorded at the highest percentage of 59.2.

From NA-112, Nankana Sahib, Shahzra Mansab Ali Khan defeated former interior minister Ejaz Ahmad Shah. Both secured 105,640 and 93,316 votes respectively. Rejected votes in this constituency were 8,032.

Ayesha Nazir, an independent candidate, secured 140,215 votes while her rival Ch. Nazir Ahmad could get 90,353 votes from NA-156, Vehari-I. The turnout was healthy, recorded at 53.47 per cent.

Asiya Ishaq Siddiqui of MQM defeated Adeel Ahmad, an independent candidate; she received 84,592 votes and he pocketed 66,753 votes. However, the turnout in this constituency of Karachi was on the lower side, recorded at 43.06 per cent.

Shandana Gulzar, an independent candidate, pocketed 78,971, whereas her closest rival Nasir Khan of Jamiat Ulema Islam-Pakistan got 20,950 votes from NA-30. The voter turnout in this constituency of Peshawar was the lowest among all 12 the constituencies, which was recorded at 33.8 per cent.

From NA-185, Dera Ghazi Khan, independent candidate Zartaj Gul got 94,881 votes and her opponent Mehmood Qadir Khan, another independent candidate, secured 32,929 votes. Voter turnout was 45.84 per cent and 7,065 votes were rejected.

Maryam Nawaz was able to inflict defeat on independent candidate Shahzad Farooq. She got a total of 83,855 votes and her rival secured 68,376 votes. Voter turnout in Lahore’s NA-119 constituency was low and recorded at 38.59 per cent.