PTI’s Jehangir Tareen wins NA-154 by-poll

PML-N’s Baloch accuses rival of spending Rs1 billion
on purchase of votes, vows to challenge victory

LODHRAN: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate, Jehangir Khan Tareen, has won the NA-154 Lodhran seat in a tough election fight and defeated the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Siddique Baloch from his ancestral constituency.

According to unofficial results, Jehangir Tareen secured 129,606 votes, while Siddique Baloch won 93,183 votes. The voting started at 8:00am and continued without interval till 5:00pm. A total of 303 polling stations were set up in NA-154. Of them, 30 were declared sensitive and six highly sensitive.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had deputed the Pakistan Army inside and outside the polling stations to ensure the by-election was held in a free and secure environment.

The NA-154 seat fell vacant after an election tribunal declared the results of the constituency void due to irregularities in the 2013 election. The seat was won by Baloch in the 2013 election, but Tareen challenged his victory in the election tribunal.

The notification for holding the election in NA-154 was issued after the Supreme Court’s October 28 verdict in which the apex court ended the stay on conducting a re-election in the NA-154 constituency of Lodhran and lifted the restriction on Siddique Baloch to contest the by-election. On August 26, an election tribunal had banned Siddique Baloch from contesting the election for life over possession of and claiming fake academic credentials. Meanwhile, Tareen said the people of the constituency rejected the package of billions of rupees announced by the rulers. He said full attention will be focussed now on development of Lodhran. Siddique Baloch alleged that votes were purchased in Lodhran by spending Rs1 billion. He said he will challenge the victory of Tareen.