—ANP’s Salahuddin secures 11,257 votes against PTI’s Zulfiqar Khan’s 9,854 votes according to unofficial results
—PTI leading with comfortable margin in NA-247, PS-111
KARACHI: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has failed to retain its Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly seat that it won in the July 25 polls after the Awami National Party (ANP) candidate won the PK-71 seat from Peshawar in the Sunday by-poll with a comfortable lead.
The voting for by-polls on National Assembly seat NA-247, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly seat PK-71, and Sindh Assembly seat PS-111 had ended at 5pm after which the vote counting started.
Unofficial results from all 86 polling stations of PK-71 showed that ANP’s Salahuddin clinched victory with 11,257 votes, followed by PTI’s Zulfiqar Khan, who secured 9,854 votes.
PK-71 fell vacant after Shah Farman was appointed as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor. Independent candidates Dildar Khan, Abdul Karim Khan, and Fazale Haq Kohi Damani also contested on the seat.
Moreover, according to the unofficial results tabulated through ECP’s Result Transmission System (RTS) in Karachi’s NA-247 the results from 226 out of 240 polling stations have been compiled.
PTI’s Aftab Siddiqui is ahead with 30,260 votes and MQM’s Sadiq Iftikhar is following him with 13,462 votes. Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) Qaiser Nizamani trails behind at the third spot.
Meanwhile, seven independent candidates are also in the race: Tahir Ashraf Hashmi, Muhammad Sharif Awan, Muhammad Ayaz, Syed Mujahid Rasool, Syed Adil Askari, Shaikh Samir Mir, and Abdul Jalil Khan. Pakistan Sunni Tehreek’s (PST) Ali Nawaz is also a candidate.
In PS-111, results have been tabulated from 66 out of 80 polling stations and PTI’s Shehzad Qureshi has the lead with 9,816 votes while PPP’s Muhammad Fayyaz Pirzada is in second place with 3,758 votes.
Activist Muhammad Jibran Nasir and PML-N’s Mohammad Zahid Hussain are also in the run for PS-111.
Twelve candidates contested for the NA-247 seat while 11 were in the run for the Sindh Assembly seat.
NA-247 was vacated by President Dr Arif Alvi while PS-111 was vacated by Sindh Governor Imran Ismail.
President Arif Alvi cast his vote at the Defence Authority Model High School earlier in the day. Speaking to media on the occasion, he requested the public to come out and vote.
Responding to a question, he said everyone knew why the inflation had risen in the past 15 days.
Governor Imran Ismail also cast his vote at DHA Girls’ College Phase 8.
The voting started at 8am and continued till 5pm without a break. The Election Commission of Pakistan stated that it did not extend the time for voting.
The polling material had been delivered to the polling stations under the supervision of Pakistan Army personnel.
According to Elections Commission of Pakistan (ECP), there are 78,965 registered voters in PS-111 and 546,451 registered voters in NA-247, while twelve candidates are contesting for the NA-247 seat and 11 candidates are in the run for the Sindh Assembly seat.
Workers from the PTI and MQM-P also came face to face in a standoff in the city’s Saddar area and chanted slogans against each other. However, Rangers intervened and helped to defuse the tensions. Police forces have also been deployed at election camps in order to ensure smooth voting.
In the by-polls on October 14, polling was held on 11 seats each for Punjab Assembly and National Assembly, nine of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and two each for Balochistan and Sindh assemblies.
PTI and PML-N won four seats a piece, while Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) retained two seats vacated by Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, while Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) won NA-35 constituency in Bannu.
PTI was unable to retain the two seats won by Prime Minister Imran Khan in the July 25 general election.