close
Friday March 29, 2024

PTI regains two of three vacated seats in by-polls

By Riffatullah
October 22, 2018

PESHAWAR/KARACHI: The Awami National Party (ANP) clinched victory on the PK-71 seat in the by-polls on Sunday stealing the Peshawar constituency from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), while the PTI won the elections on Karachi’s NA-247 and PS-111 seats.

In Peshawar, the PTI suffered another setback as according to unofficial result, the ANP candidate defeated the brother of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor. KP Governor Shah Farman had won the seat in general elections securing 17,388 votes. The seat had fallen vacant after Shah Farman was appointed the governor. The PTI awarded ticket to Shah Farman’s brother Zulfiqar Khan, while the ANP fielded Salahuddin Mohmand, a former PTI activist, in the by-election.

Salahuddin Mohmand got 11,416 votes while the runner-up Zulfiqar Khan of PTI secured 10,004 votes. Another disgruntled PTI worker, Dildar Khan, contested the election in an independent capacity and bagged 5,409 votes. This divided the PTI vote-bank and tilted the balance in favour of the ANP candidate who won the seat. Also, all the opposition parties had backed the ANP candidate to defeat the PTI.

The ANP candidate was leading since the beginning when the results started pouring in and the lead continued till the complete unofficial result of the entire constituency was announced. The PTI had won 12 of the 14 seats in Peshawar in the general elections. The election on PK-78 was postponed after the death of ANP candidate Haroon Bashir Bilour in a suicide attack on the ANP’s corner meeting in Yakatoot on July 10. One constituency, PK-70, was won by ANP’s Khushdil Khan, narrowly defeating the PTI’s Shah Farman in the general elections. In the by-election held on October 14, the ANP snatched one KP seat from PTI in Swat. However, the ANP lost its seat in Mardan to the ruling PTI.

ANP’s Waqar Ahmad Khan won PK-7 Swat defeating PTI’s Fazal Maula, while the seat vacated by former chief minister Ameer Haider Hoti, PK-53 Mardan, was won by the PTI’s Abdul Salam Afridi. Also, the ANP candidate Samar Haroon Bilour, the widow of Haroon Bilour, defeated PTI’s Muhammad Irfan on PK-78 Peshawar.

The PTI also lost PK-3 Swat to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Sardar Khan and NA-35 Bannu to the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F)’s Zahid Akram Durrani. The reason of PTI loss was mainly the presence of two PTI candidates in the contest. NA-35 Bannu was won by PTI Chairman Imran Khan in the general elections against former chief minister Akram Durrani.

With the victory of ANP’s Salahuddin Mohmand, the party has now nine members in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly and two women on reserved seats. The PTI has lost five of the 11 seats, including one national and four provincial in the by-elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The ANP President, Asfandyar Wali Khan, through a statement congratulated the party workers over their candidate’s victory in PK-78 Peshawar. He said that Salahuddin Mohmand’s victory showed the masses ‘vote of no-confidence’ in the policies of the incumbent government.

Asfandyar Wali thanked the leaders of the joint opposition for supporting the ANP candidate in the by-election. He said the by-election results proved that the July 25 elections were not transparent and the mandate was stolen.

According to the provisional results, the PTI won the two constituencies in Karachi. In Karachi's NA-247 constituency, PTI's Aftab Siddiqui won by securing 32,326 votes, while the MQM’s Sadiq Iftikhar remained runner-up with 13,985 votes.

In PS-111, PTI's Shehzad Qureshi won with 11,658 votes, while the PPP's Muhammad Fayyaz Pirzada stood second with 5,780 votes.

Twelve candidates contested for the NA-247 seat, while 11 were in the running for the Sindh Assembly seat. The NA-247 was vacated by President Dr Arif Alvi, while PS-111 was vacated by Sindh Governor Imran Ismail.

President Arif Alvi cast his vote at the Defence Authority Model High School earlier in the day. Speaking to the media on the occasion, he requested the public to come out and vote. Governor Imran Ismail also cast his vote at the DHA Girls’ College, Phase 8.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) candidate Sardar Amir Altaf took lead in the by-polls held on a vacant seat of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly. According to unofficial and unconfirmed results of the 131 polling stations, PML-N’s Altaf got 20,874 votes, while PPP candidate Sardar Ghulam Sadiq stood second with 14,731 votes.

A total of 131 polling stations had been set up for 41,658 voters in the constituency amid stringent security. Thirty-seven polling stations were declared sensitive and 28 highly sensitive. The LA-18 seat was left vacant following the death of PML-N leader Khan Bahadur Khan.