Summary Major political parties of the country suffered upset defeats in by-elections.
ISLAMABAD (Dunya NEWS) The ruling Pakistan Muslim-N (PML-N) has topped the electoral race once again by securing maximum number of provincial and National Assembly seats in the by-elections.
Meanwhile, the PPP and the ANP, which had fared poorly in the general elections despite being in the ruling coalition for five years, seem to be awakening while the PTI’s ‘tsunami’ seems to have receded.
PTI chairman Imran Khan had won the elections from three NA constituencies and decided to retain Rawalpindi seat (NA-56). However, the PTI lost both Peshawar (NA-1) and Mr Khan’s ancestral seat from Mianwali (NA-71) in Thursday’s by-elections held in 15 constituencies of the National Assembly and 26 of the provincial assemblies.
The election commission ordered re-polling in two NA constituencies on a directive of the high court after reports that women had been barred from voting in NA-5 Nowshera and NA-27 Lakki Marwat.
According to the unofficial results, the ruling PML-N has clinched 5 NA seats, PPP 3, PTI 2, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Awami National Party (ANP) and Pakhtunkhwa Mili Awami Party (PKMAP) have secured one NA seat each.
ANP’s Ghulam Ahmed Bilour and PTI’s Asad Umer have won NA seats from Peshawar and Islamabad respectively.
Out of 26 provincial assembly seats PML-N won 13 seats – 11 in Punjab Assembly and 2 in Balochistan Assembly.
PPP has so far bagged 3 provincial assembly slots – 2 in Punjab Assembly and 1 in Sindh Assembly. PTI has secured 2 Punjab Assembly seats and MQM 3 slots in Sindh Assembly while ANP and JUI won 1 seat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly. Meanwhile, three independent candidates, two from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and other from Balochistan also won in by-election.
By and large, the by-elections were conducted in a peaceful and smooth manner. At the eleventh hour, polling was postponed in Tank, due to security reasons.
The PTI lost both seats vacated by Imran Khan after the May 11 general elections.
In NA-1 Peshawar the PTI candidate Gul Badshah lost to Ghulam Ahmad Bilour of the Awami National Party, while in NA-71 Mianwali, the PTI’s Malik Wahid lost to the PML-N’s Obaidullah Shadikhel.
ANP supporters celebrated Bilour s victory with fireworks and traditional aerial shooting.
However, in a keenly contested fight in NA-48 Islamabad, the PTI candidate Asad Umar defeated PML-N’s Ashraf Gujjar. In another important contest in PP-247 Rajanpur, the PML-N lost the seat vacated by Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif to the PTI.
In Sindh, the Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) won the vacated seats.
