KP LG polls: We admit defeat, says PTI

PESHAWAR: The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) accepted defeat in the local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after it suffered a huge setback.

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) followed by the Awami National Party (ANP) won the majority of the seats in the city, tehsil councils (TCs) and village councils (VCs) in the local government elections held on Sunday.

The JUI-F got five of the top slots in Peshawar while ANP and PTI won one each, as per the provisional results of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). Four main political parties had a tough clash for the top slot of the mayor of the metropolitan city and six tehsils in Peshawar.

Counting for the city council took over 24 hours and continued till Monday evening. In Peshawar city council, Zubair Ali of JUI-F got 62,388 votes followed by 50,659 votes by Rizwan Bangash of PTI. Sher Rehman of ANP got 49,596, Arbab Zarak Khan of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) received 45,958 and Behrullah of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) bagged 18,367 votes in the contest for the Peshawar’s mayor slot.

Polling at six polling stations in the Peshawar City Council was postponed due to a law and order situation that also stopped the official announcement of the result in this constituency. In Mathra tehsil, Faridullah of JUIF was elected chairman with 22,000 votes followed by 15,844 votes of JI candidate Iftikhar Ahmad.

Another JUI-F candidate Tila Mohammad got 13,454 in Tehsil Badaber while Ghazanfar Ai of ANP bagged 12,562 votes. Kalimullah of JUI-F got 21,678 votes in Tehsil Council Shah Alam. He was followed by Waqas Ahmad of PTI with 11,250 votes.

Pishtakhara tehsil in Peshawar, Mohammad Haroon of JUIF got 11,295 votes while Zahir Khan of PML-N received 10,158 votes.

In Chamkani tehsil, Arbab Umar of ANP got 24,415 votes followed by 20,398 votes of Nabi Gul of PTI.

In Hassankhel, the PTI candidate Hafizur Rehman won the slot. He was followed by JUIF's Nazar Baz. A number of PTI MNAs, MPAs and other leaders were said to be supporting rival candidates against the party contenders in the LG polls.

Some of them were issued show-cause notices but they continued to oppose their own party contenders. The PTI also lost in most of the VCs and NCs in Peshawar and other districts.

Abdul Rauf of JUI-F won the tehsil council Charsadda slot by securing 78212 votes followed by Taimur Khattak of ANP with 45722 votes. Independent Fayaz Ali won the slot for chairman of the tehsil council of Tangi with 14,189 votes followed by another independent Yahya Jan who bagged 13,705 votes.

In Shabqadar, Charsadda, Hamza Asif of JUI-F got 33,244 votes against Shahidullah of PTI who received 14,616 votes.

The JUI-F candidate Sher Zaman won the slot of chairman of the tehsil council Kohat with 34,434 votes followed by 25,793 of an independent, Shafiullah Jan.

In the Lachi tehsil of Kohat, independent Mohammad Ihsan won the seat with 8,704 votes. He was followed by 7,907 votes of PTI's Imtiaz Qureshi.

A candidate of the PTI Sher Alam Khan got 11,505 votes in Gadezai tehsil in Buner. He was followed by 7,897 of ANP's Shah Jahan.

In Chagharzai tehsil in Buner, Sharif Khan of PTI got 8,056 votes and independent Iqbal Khan bagged 4,888 votes.

In Wazir tehsil of Bannu, Masto Khan of JUI-F was elected chairman by bagging 2,928 votes. He was followed by 2,648 of an independent, Irfanullah.

In the Kulachi tehsil of Dera Ismail Khan, Araiz Khan Gandapur Of PTI got 1,0236 votes against 7562 of PPP's Faridoon Khan.

Ihsanullah Khan of JI was elected chairman of the Daraban tehsil of Dera Ismail Khan with 16,420 votes. He was followed by 9,486 of PTI's Babar Badshah.

Independent Fakhrullah Khan was elected chairman Paroa tehsil in DIK after securing 23346 votes while Imtiaz Khan of JUI-F got 21817 votes.

In Paharpur tehsil of DI Khan, Altaf Hussain of PPP got 37,302 votes and was followed by independent Jahanzeb Khan who bagged 34,730.

In the Mardan district, Himayatullah Mayar of the Awami National Party won the slot of the mayor city council by securing 56,458 votes. He was followed by 49,938 of Amanat Shah of JUI-F.

In the Katlang tehsil,Mardan, JUI-F's Hamdullah was elected chairman with 30,474 votes. He was followed by 18,186 of ANP's Fazal Rehman.

JUI-F candidate Mohammad Saeed won chairman tehsil council Takhtbhai with 45,881 votes and he was followed by Mazhar Ali of PML-N.

In Rustam Mardan, Mubarak Ahmad Durrani of JUI-F got 16887 votes while Muzaffar Shah of PTI bagged 12482.

In Nowshera Ishaq Khattak of PTI got 49084 votes while Hakim Ali of JUIF bagged 40,972 votes.

Ghayur Khan of ANP got 27530 in Tehsil Pabbi in Nowshera followed by 27,268 of Ishfaq Ahmad of the PTI.

Federal Minister for Science and Technology Senator Syed Shibli Faraz said that performance of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in KP local bodies’ election is not that bad.

The federal minister while citing current wave of inflation said that PTI candidates in most of constituencies contested aspirants belonging to PTI itself.

Talking to media in Peshawar, the federal minister expressed pleasure over what he referred as peaceful conduct of polling to elect members of new local government in the province.

Shibli Faraz further said that PTI has learnt a lot from current local bodies’ election and that the party will prepare well for next election.

Criticising other contesting parties in polls, he said that opposition has no alternative future plan. Shibli Faraz deplored violent clashes at polling stations resulting in loss of fives lives in different KP cities.

On the other hand, PTI KP minister Shaukat Ali Yousafzai has also regarded price hike as major reason for poor performance of party in election.

While speaking to media, Yousafzai vowed to lower inflation in country. Prime Minister has realisation about issue of price hike, asserted the provincial minister.

Shaukat Yousafzai termed the conduct of polling an achievement of PTI government saying grassroot level elections are unprecedented in history of Pakistan which have been fully participated by people of province.

Referring to the incident of clashes skirmishes during course of election Yousafzai said no more than two or three mishaps took place. Shaukat Yousafzai said thanks to God that there is no allegation of corruption leveled against PTI government.

Similar views were expressed by two provincial ministers Atif Khan and Shahram Tarakai. The latter added that party’s planning at lower political level also played a part.

Meanwhile, JUIF chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman said that local bodies’ elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa proved once again that his party was the single largest party of the province.

He made these remarks while addressing a press conference along with former Balochistan chief minister Aslam Raisani in Quetta on Monday.

“This election has proved that previous [2018 general elections] were rigged and JUIF was and still is the largest party of the province,” he remarked.

Fazl said some forces did not want religious parties to come into power due to their ideology. “Why would we [JUI-F] be unacceptable to the Western world when the United States ‘allowed’ Taliban to take over Afghanistan?” he added.

The JUIF chief further said the elections results have vindicated their stance that corruption allegations had been used as a tool to victimise opposition parties.

“The practice to defame politicians should end now,” said Fazl, adding that his party could run the affairs of the state better than the ruling PTI.