PML-N secures only three NA, five PA seats in KP

PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) secured only three national and five provincial assembly seats from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) in the July 25 general elections.

The PML-N nominee and former MNA Ibadullah Khan retained his seat NA-10 Shangla though the party lost the two provincial assembly seats in the district. Muhammad Sajjad, elder brother of Capt (Retd) Muhammad Safdar returned successfully on NA-14, Mansehra, defeating the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate Zargul Khan.

A former deputy speaker and provincial general secretary of PML-N Murtaza Javed Abbasi succeeded in retaining his seat of NA-15, Abbottabad. Similarly, on PK-30, Mansehra, the PML-N contender and former MPA Mian Ziaur Rehman secured 29,468 votes and was declared winner defeating ex-provincial minister and PPP nominee Syed Ahmad Hussain Shah by a thin margin of 254 votes. On PK-32 and PK-34, Mansehra, too, PML-N candidate Naeem Sakhi and Sardar Muhammad Yousuf were declared successful, respectively.

A Former MPA and parliamentary leader of the PML-N in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, Sardar Aurangzeb Nalotha, also won his seat PK-37, Abbottabad while on PK-55, Mardan ex-MPA Jamshed Khan Mohmand stood victorious, thus retaining their seats.

Mansehra is the only district where the PML-N showed the best performance by winning one national and three provincial assembly constituencies. The second NA seat in the district was won by a PML-N dissident former MPA Saleh Muhammad who contested the polls as independent against the PML-N nominee Sardar Shahjehan Yousuf. Saleh had the support of the PTI.

Other two national assembly seats the party won were from Shangla and Abbottabad while the party secured one each provincial assembly seat from Abbottabad and Mardan. Compared to the five seats, the PML-N had won 17 provincial assembly constituencies in the 2013 general elections and had then emerged the second largest party in the KP Assembly.