Seats of disqualified politicians won by their nominees

ISLAMABAD: All the seats of the leading politicians who were disqualified by the courts were won by their nominees with a considerable margin.

The electorate rejecting the disqualifications elected associates of disqualified candidate -- Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz, Captain (R) Safdar and Daniyal Aziz. The election on the seat of Hanif Abbasi (NA-60) were postponed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

Captain (R) Safdar was contesting elections from NA-14 but was disqualified through an accountability court verdict after issuance of election schedule. His brother, Muhammad Sajjad, was his covering candidate who won the election from this constituency from PML-N platform by obtaining 74,889 votes defeating PTI’ Zar Gul Khan who secured 59,638 votes. Election in NA-60 were postponed after an anti-narcotics court convicted him in a case pending for the last7 years simply three days before the polling day.

Senior PML-N leader Daniyal Aziz was disqualified in a contempt of court case on June 28, 2018 some three weeks after the issuance of election schedule. Daniyal’s wife Mehnaz Akbar Aziz contested the election from his constituency NA-77 as a PML-N candidate secured 106,366 votes defeating an independent candidate Mian Tariq Anees who secured only 70,596 votes. Another candidate Mian Muhammad Rasheed of PTI secured 52,231 votes.

Similarly, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was disqualified on July 28, 2017 on account of not declaring an un-received salary by holding that ‘receivables’ are also assets even for a salaried persons, a declaration which is contrary to the tax laws of Pakistan. Waheed Alam Malik contested general elections from constituency of Nawaz Sharif NA-125 and won by securing 122,327 votes whereas a very strong candidate Yasmin Rashid of PTI secured 105,857 votes.

Senior PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz was convicted and hence disqualified on July 6 after issuance of election schedule. Maryam had submitted her nomination papers from NA-127 Lahore before her conviction. Ali Pervaiz Malik was her covering candidate who won with huge majority against his opponent Jamshaid Iqbal Cheema of PTI. Ali Pervaiz secured 113,265 votes whereas Cheema got only 66,818 votes.