PP-38 by-election: PTI beats PML-N in first Punjab by-poll

SIALKOT: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate Ahsan Saleem emerged victorious in the PP-38 Sialkot by-election held on Wednesday.

The PTI has won the PP-38 Sialkot seat, which was vacated after the death of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) lawmaker.

According to an unofficial and unconfirmed count of all 165 polling stations, PTI’s Chaudhry Ahsan Saleem Baryar came out on top with 60,588 votes, while PMLN candidate came in second place with 53,471 votes, a private news channel reported.

The PTI had lost this seat by 17,000 votes in the general elections of 2018, and now it has won the seat by about 7,000 votes, according to unofficial results.

The polling started at 8:00am and continued till 5:00pm without any break to elect a representative of the constituency in the provincial legislature. 165 polling stations were established for the election, and 68 of them had been declared sensitive and 38 highly sensitive. More than 3,000 police personnel along with over 500 Punjab Rangers personnel were deployed to ensure law and order.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had also established a control room in the ECP Secretariat to receive polling day complaints.

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry said the PTI candidate’s victory was a sign of the success of PM Imran Khan’s vision.

“This confidence of people is a sign of the success of Imran Khan's political vision,” the minister said in a tweet.

Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar congratulated Baryar over his success in the Sialkot by-election.

In a statement, the CM thanked the PP-38 voters, saying that this shows that the politics of honesty and trust will prevail in the country. He said the voters have rejected the negative narrative of the opposing party. He said the success of the PTI candidate is a victory of the public-friendly agenda of the government and the people have defeated the negative politics of the corrupt.