PML-N wins NA-162 Sahiwal-III by-polls

MULTAN: The PML-N has won the NA-162 Sahiwal-III by-polls by defeating the PTI and PPP candidates with heavy lead amid tight security provided by the army, Rangers and police personnel here on Monday, unofficial results revealed.

The PTI had won the slot in the last general elections held in 2013 with a heavy majority but the party lost it in the by-polls. The unofficial results have revealed that the PML-N candidate Tufail Jatt secured 68,943 votes compared to the PTI candidate Rai Murtaza Iqbal, bagging 54,671 votes, and the PPP candidate Shehzad Saeed Cheema getting only 140 votes. Seven candidates were in the run for the by-elections. The voting started at 8am and continued till 5pm without any interval while more than 4,000 army, police and Rangers personnel performed security duties amid a low turnout, election observers said. The polling process remained peaceful.

The Election Commission of Pakistan’s statistics showed 340,347 voters registered in the constituency, including 149,354 female and 190,993 male voters.Earlier, the seat fell vacant in May last, when the Supreme Court upheld the decision of the election tribunal to declare the election of PTI’s Rai Hassan Nawaz Khan null and void on the allegation of not declaring his assets to the ECP.

The SC disqualified Rai Hassan Nawaz Khan on concealing his asset details and ordered re-election in the constituency. The disqualified MNA moved the apex court against the election tribunal’s verdict. A three-member SC bench, headed by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, disposed of Rai Hassan Nawaz’s appeal and ordered a re-election.