PTI candidate wins Mansehra by-election

MANSEHRA: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate Ahmad Hussain Shah has won by-election on PK-30 and secured 46,483 votes against 39,945 votes of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz candidate Mazhar Ali Qasim.

“This win is a confidence of the people in PTI’s federal and provincial governments. The time is not far when we will launch mega development schemes for the people of Balakot who are still reeling from the effects of the October 8, 2005 earthquake,” Member National Assembly (MNA) Saleh Mohammad Khan told a jubilant crowd after the returning officer issued unofficial results on Wednesday.

As many as seven aspirants from various political parties and independents were in the run for the by-election in PK-30 constituency, which had fallen vacant after the apex court disqualified the PML-N’s Mian Ziaur Rehman in a fake degree case, last year.

The polling was held on Tuesday and results of all 186 polling stations were pouring in all the night and returning officer unofficially notified Shah as the MPA.

Addressing the crowd, PTI MNA Saleh Mohammad Khan said that the federal government was following policies to improve the living standards of the masses.

Ahmad Hussain Shah thanked the voters for reposing confidence in him. “I assure you that mega development projects for the people of Balakot would be launched with the support of the federal government,” he said.The crowd raised slogans in support of PTI and its lawmakers.