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Friday March 29, 2024

Kulsoom keeps Sharifs’ vote bank intact in NA-120

By Sabir Shah
September 18, 2017

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League (N) candidate Begum Kulsoom Nawaz, the currently ailing three-time former First Lady of the country, effectively kept her husband Nawaz Sharif’s 32-year old vote bank intact by clinching Sunday’s tense bye-election from Lahore’s historic NA-120 constituency.

While Kulsoom was not personally present on the spot for being under medical treated in London, her fruitful and untiring election campaign was led by her eldest daughter Maryam Nawaz.  And final results saw Kulsoom returning home triumphant by over 13,000 votes, quite a winning lead in a bye-election!

Kulsoom’s win has surely helped many an analyst assume safely that Nawaz Sharif still holds massive sway in national politics and that his disqualification by the Supreme Court has not affected the loyalties of his die-hard voters and supporters in Lahore at least.

Nawaz Sharif, his family members, party loyalists and even relatives like Ishaq Dar have remained unbeaten in NA-120, which has been renamed twice during the last 32 years and six months since the February 28, 1985 party-less polls, when he (Nawaz) had defeated Jamaat-e-Islami's Syed Asad Gillani in a National Assembly contest, but had opted to retain the provincial assembly seat.  

Those days, the number of National Assembly seats used to be 237.  Consequently, on April 9, 1985, he was sworn in as Punjab chief minister. The PPP had boycott the 1985 polls because the rather dumb and mute party-less election were held during Gen Ziaul Haq’s military regime.

While Nawaz had succeeded in garnering support of 35,719 voters, his rival Asad Gillani could secure 17,896 votes only. This part of NA-120 used to be called NA-86 back in 1985, when around 1,300 candidates had contested the election and voter turnout was 52.93 per cent.

NA-86 was later known as NA-95; and since 2002, it is called NA-120 (an amalgamation of NA-95 and NA-96). Nawaz Sharif had again emerged victorious from the seat by defeating PPP’s Arif Iqbal Bhatti (late) from NA-95 in 1988.

While Nawaz had got 49,318 votes, Arif Bhatti could bag 36,605 votes. However, he chose the provincial seat again and gain another tenure as Punjab chief minister.

In 1990, Nawaz had trampled all over PPP and Tehreek-e-Istaqlal’s joint candidate, Air Marshal (R) Asghar Khan. While Nawaz got 49,318 votes, Asghar Khan could get 39,585 votes. Contesting on a Pakistan Awami Tehreek ticket, former Pakistani cricket hero of yore,Fazal Mehmood, could win confidence of 497 voters only.

In the 1993 elections, Nawaz contested against the PPP's Zia Bakht Butt from NA-95, but also contested an Abbottabad-cum-Haripur seat, NA-12, which he retained--- leaving NA-95 to be won in the by-election by Ishaq Dar.

In the 1997 elections, he won this seat again and this time gave it to Pervaiz Malik. This time, Nawaz had defeated PPP’s Hafiz Ghulam Mohi-ud-Din.

However, Nawaz had retained his Haripur seat in 1997 too. This also marked the second time that Mian Nawaz Sharif became the premier. Nawaz couldn’t contest the 2002 and 2008 general elections due to exile as well as conviction by the courts during the General Musharraf era, but his party had entered into an electoral alliance with the Jamaat-i-Islami, on this seat.

Pervaiz Malik was resultantly elected from this seat in 2002. He had obtained 33,741 votes, while his opponent PPP’s Altaf Qureshi could secure 19,483 votes only. As mentioned earlier, Nawaz could not take part in the 2008 polls too.

In 2008, Kulsoom’s nephew Bilal Yaseen got 65,946 on a PML-N ticket and PPP’s Jahengir Badr could get 24,380 votes. During the May 2013 polls, Nawaz Sharif had mustered support of 91,683 voters, while PTI’s Dr Yasmin Rashid could only end up bagging 52,354 of the total votes cast.