Imran sweeps AJK polls

By Syed Abbas Gardezi

ISLAMABAD/MUZAFFARABAD: Vote counts at polling stations across Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and various cities of Pakistan for the AJK Legislative Assembly elections is underway, as PTI has taken lead with 18 seats while PML-N and PPP grabbed 3 seats each till the filing of the report on Sunday night.

Polling time ended at 5pm with the gates of polling stations closed to new voters, however those already queued inside were allowed to cast their ballot.

AJK has a total of 3.2 million voters, out of which 1.75 million are male and 1.46 million are female. There are 33 electoral constituencies in the ten districts of AJK, while 12 constituencies are reserved for Pakistan-based Jammu & Kashmir refugees. Polling booths across Pakistan's provinces were set up for the refugees.

Over 2.8 million voters have been registered in 33 AJK constituencies and 0.4 million in 12 Jammu and Kashmir refugees based in various parts of Pakistan.

A total of 691 candidates, including 381 belonging to a total of 32 registered political parties and a total of 310 independent candidates, are in the running for 45 seats.

The elections are being held under the supervision of AJK Judiciary, Pakistan Army and Rangers with the coordination of the local civil law enforcement institutions.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission has announced complete results of 6 seats from refugee constituencies till 9:00pm. According to results announced, PPP’s Amir Abdul Ghafar Lone clinched victory from LA 40 Valley I, by getting 2,348 votes while his closet rival PTI’s candidate Muhammad Saleem Butt could secure only 796 votes and PMLN’s candidate Tahir Ali Wani got 501 vote. In LA- 43 Valley 4, PTI’s candidate Javed Ahmad Butt won by securing 774 votes against his opponent PMLN candidate Naseema Wani‘s 720 votes while two other candidates in this constituency got zero votes.

In LA- 41 Valley 2, PTI candidate Dewan Ghulam Mohiuddin clinched victory by securing 2,326 votes against his rival Akram Butt of PMLN who secured 741 votes and PPP candidate Shabir Abbas Mir got 166 votes.

In LA- 44 Valley 5, PMLN candidate Ahmad Raza Qadri won the election by securing 2,007 votes against his rival candidate Mehr Un Nisa of Muslim Conference who secured 1,163 votes while PTI candidate Bashir Ahmad Khan got 540 votes.

In LA- 45 Kashmir Valley 6, PTI candidate Abdul Majid Khan retained his seat by securing 1,545 votes against his rival independent candidate Abdul Nasir Khan who secured 718 votes while Jamaat-e-Islami candidate got 322 votes.

In LA- 38 Jammu 6, PTI candidate Akbar Ibrahim Chaudhary won by securing 12,219 votes while PMLN candidate Chaudhary Zeeshan took second position by securing 7,325 votes and Rana Sadeeq of Jamaat-e-Islami stood third by securing 640 votes.