Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) candidate Sahibzada Sanaullah won the by-election for PK-93 by defeating Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) candidate Malik Azam Khan by a margin of over 7,000 votes.
According to unofficial and unconfirmed results, Sahibzada Sanaullah secured 21,738 votes against his opponent Malik Azam Khan, who got 14,617 votes.
The seat had fallen vacant after JI’s Malik Behram Khan was disqualified for having a fake degree. JI chief Sirajul Haq had previously won the seat on several occasions.
All the polling stations had been declared sensitive in terms of the security situation for the by-polls held on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, women took a giant leap to reclaim their right to vote as they queued up outside polling stations in PK-93 (Upper Dir III) — the first time women in the district were allowed to vote in almost half a century.
The last time women in Upper Dir exercised their right to vote was during 1970’s election after which they were barred from voting and a ban was imposed in the area.
In the constituency of PK-93, total number of registered voters is 148,076 out of which 57,708 are females while 90,308 are male voters.
Analysts have reason to believe that mainstream parties like Jamaat-e-Islami and Pakistan People’s Party, who were earlier accused of not letting women vote, actively campaigned this time around to encourage Upper Dir’s women to exercise their constitutional right – an activity never witnessed before in the twin districts.
