The final phase of local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) was completed Sunday after polls for nazim and naib nazim were held in the province’s 23 districts, with the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leading with victories in nine districts including Peshawar, Nowshera, Charsadda and DI Khan.
In Peshawar, PTI’s Arbab Asim was elected district nazim unopposed, with the PTI also getting nazims elected in three of the city’s four towns. Asim’s oath-taking ceremony was also conducted earlier in the day.
In Nowshera, CM Pervez Khattak’s brother, Liquat Khattak, was elected nazim with the PTI also bagging the naib nazim slot.
In Charsadda, PTI’s Fahad Khan was elected district nazim, with Jamaat-i-Islami (JI)’s Masood Shah as his deputy.
PTI’s Adil Islam won the elections in Haripur, while Attaur Rehman secured a seat in Batgram. Mustafa Kundi won from Taank, Dr Umar Daraz from Karak, Aziz Ullah Zai from DI Khan, and Noor Muhammad from Tor Ghara succeeded with PTI tickets.
According to unofficial results on Radio Pakistan, JI, which is the ruling PTI’s coalition partner in the KP government, won in Chitral, Buner, Upper and Lower Dir, while the PML-N succeeded in Shangla, Mansehra and Swat.
The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) was able to win in Malakand and Karak, while the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam – Fazl (JUI-F) succeeded in Kohat and Lakki Marwat.
The tripartite alliance of Awami National Party (ANP), JUI-F and PPP boycotted the nazim and naib nazim elections in the district and three towns of Peshawar but did not boycott such elections in Town-4 of Peshawar and some other districts where the alliance had sufficient number of councillors to form governments.
JI bagged four nazim seats. Shehzada Faseeh Ullah won the election from Upper Dir, Maarfat Shah in Chitral, Dr Ubaid Ullah in Buner and Muhammad Rasool Khan bagged the District Nazim seat in Lower Dir on JI ticket.
Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) got three, Muhammad Ali Shah of PML-N became the district nazim from Swat. PML-N candidates Sardar Syed Ghulam and Niaz Amir Muqam also won the elections in Mansehra and Shangla respectively.
JUI-F and PPP got two each. JUI-F’s Mufti Ubaid Ullah and Maulana Muhammad Niaz won the elections in Hangu and Kohat respectively. PPP’s Syed Ahmed Ali won the election in Malakand and Ashfaq Ahmad of the same party secured the seat from Laki Marwat.
ANP was able to succeed in Swabi only with ANP’s Amir Rehman securing office.