Imran Khan’s PTI leads in by-elections

By Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party is leading in all three provinces as results pour in for the by-elections, which Khan has called ‘a referendum’ on his popularity.

Khan is a candidate for seven of eight national assembly seats in a key by-election held on Sunday. He faces a crucial popularity test in the by-polls , looking to build momentum for his campaign to pressure the six-month-old government into calling an early national vote.

The seats fell vacant after all 131 lawmakers from Khan’s party resigned from parliament’s lower house in April after he was ousted from power through a no-confidence vote. Elections to those seats are being held in phases.

Unofficial and unconfirmed results show that Khan’s PTI is in lead in multiple constituencies and has won in Mardan, Peshawar and was leading on five other seats. His party also won Punjab’s provincial assembly seats in Khanewal and Bahawalnagar.

Khan defeated ANP’s Haji Ghulam Ahmad Bilour in Peshawar by more than 25,000 votes. In Charsadda, as per unofficial results, PTI outclass ANP’s Aimal Wali Khan. Khan won the contest by 10,233 votes.
In Mardan’s by-poll Khan secured 76,681 votes, as per unofficial results. JUI-F’s Maulana Muhammad Qasim, his rival, was able to get 68,181 votes. The PTI chairman won by a margin of 8,500 votes.

However, the PTI party lost a key National Assembly seat in Multan where Ali Musa Gilani, son of former premier Yusuf Raza Gilani defeated Mehr Bano Qureshi, daughter of former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

Ruling Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz also won one Punjab provincial assembly seat, but tailing behind the PTI on other seats.

A win means Khan will more forcefully press the government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to call an immediate general election rather than wait until October next year.

Khan has already scored a string of recent by-election victories, with his party seizing control in July of the state assembly in Punjab,.

The Sunday’s by-polls began in various constituencies of Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces earlier in the day, though the government had requested the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to delay the exercise for a few months since it had deployed most of its resources in flood-affected areas.

The ECP, however, turned down the proposal while asking relevant officials to provide adequate security for the peaceful electoral process.

Initially, the voters were slow to come out, apparently due to Sunday. However, the polling process picked up the pace by the late afternoon.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif encouraged people to go out and elect their representatives in a message on Twitter.

“This is a constitutional and legal process and only the people have the right to choose who they want,” he continued. “Voters should make a thoughtful decision because the development of their country and their own prosperity depends on it.”

There were sporadic incidents of violence at various places but overall the polling process remained smooth and peaceful. Strict security measures were taken by the authorities to to maintain peace and apart from police and paramilitary Rangers and Frontier Corps, regular troops were also deployed at sensitive polling stations.

The ECP said overall, the polling process remained peaceful, and the commission’s central control room received 15 complaints of code violations. A spokesperson for the commission said that most of the complaints were about workers of political parties clashing and other minor issues. “The received complaints were resolved immediately.”