PML-N leads AJK elections, PPP stumbles

AJKMC, PTI tied in second place with two seats each in largely peaceful polls

DG KHAN/ NOWSHERA/ MUZAFFARABAD/ HANGU/ SUKKUR/ UPPER DIR/ PARACHINAR/ MARDAN/ JEHLUM/ MONGORA: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) emerged as the front-runner in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir general elections on Thursday, picking up as many as a dozen seats, according to unofficial results. The All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference (AJKMC) and the Pakistan Tehreek Insaf (PTI) shared the second spot, grabbing two seats apiece.

The Pakistan Peoples Party fared quite badly, claiming a solitary seat.

Earlier in the day, elections were held on 41 seats of the 49-member AJK Legislative Assembly in the valley and in different parts of the country where refugees from Indian-controlled Kashmir are living. According to a breakup, two seats each are in Karachi and Rawalpindi, and one each in Peshawar, Islamabad, Lahore, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Narowal, Gujrat and Multan.



Voters cast their ballots in largely peaceful conditions in most polling stations as tight security was maintained through army units that were deployed in and around polling stations.

There were, however, some isolated reports of firing in Haveli but police managed to arrest Jameel Mir for aerial gunfire inside a polling station. Some minor clashes erupted after rounds of sloganeering between Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) voters.

In Lahore there were few clashes between political workers but no full blown incident of violence.

As many as 423 candidates from 44 political parties were in the running for 41 directly contested seats.

According to unofficial results, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has bagged 12 seats, including six refugee seats located in different parts of Punjab. The main PML-N leaders who won included PML-N AJK chief and former prime minister of the valley Raja Farooq Haider, Shah Ghulam Qadir, Noorin Arif, Chudhry Sahzad, Barrister Iftikhar Gilani, Raja Abdul Qayyum,  Asad Kaleem Shah, Shaukat Shah, Raja Sadiq, Raja Nisar, Chaudhry Rukhsar and  Raja Naseer.

The All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference (AJKMC) managed to bag two seats with Sardar Attiq Ahmad winning in Dhirkot while Malik Nawaz winning in Kotli.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), which is a new entrant in the Kashmir elections, also managed to bag two seats though both of their seats came from the refugee seats including one in Lahore and the other in Karachi.

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), which has been in power in the outgoing government, could only muster one seat with the outgoing prime minister Chaudhry Abdul Majeed narrowly securing victory.



The biggest upset, perhaps even in AJK’s political history was when former prime minister of the valley and head of PTI’s chapter there, Barrister Sultan Mahmood, was beaten by PML-N’s Chaudhry Muhammad Saeed by over 3,000 votes. The PTI chief got an impressive 16,897 votes, but Saeed upstaged him by securing 19,878 in Mirpur city. The Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Party (JKPP) chief Khalid Ibrahim won a solitary seat for the party by beating off competition from Farzana Yaqoob, daughter of AJK’s incumbent President Sardar Yaqoob.

Meanwhile, the PML-N’s Haider told The Express Tribune that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is expected to visit Muzaffarabad on Friday to congratulate the people for handing the party a large mandate.

Voter turnout

While the turnout in the valley was between 40-50 per cent, voting in other parts of the country for the 12 refugee seats showed a mixed trend amid tight security.

In Lahore, voting was largely peaceful with only some reports of confrontation between supporters of the PML-N and the PTI as they raised slogans against each other.

PTI’s Ghulam Mohiuddin Dewan bagged the LA-37 Valley II seat by securing 1,689 votes. His opponent PML-N’s Ghulam Abbas Mir could only bag 945 votes.

At LA-30 in Lahore, PML-N’s Nasir Dar was leading with 1,919 votes while PTI’s Maqsooduzzaman was trailing behind with just 480 votes.

According to unofficial results, PML-N’s Chaudhry Ismaeel Gujjar had won LA-31 after securing 19,574 votes while PTI’s Chaudhry Maqbool Gujjar secured 6, 771 votes.

In LA-32 Sialkot, Chaudhry Ishaq of PML-N secured 17,637 votes while PTI’s Hamid Raza secured 12,936 votes.

PML-N’s Yasir Rashid in Narowal won LA-33 after securing 21, 321 votes. He was followed by PTI’s Akmal Sargalla who secured 16,188 votes.



PML-N’s Javed Akhtar won LA-34 Gujranwala with 12,879 votes while independent candidate Akbar Ibrahim got 10,865 votes.

In Jhelum, PML-N candidate Raja Muhammad Siddique won LA-35 (Jammu-VI) by grabbing 1,901 votes, while PTI’s Hameed Khan Pothi could only muster 1,216 votes.

The LA-38 (Jammu-VII) seat in Multan was clinched by PML-N’s Syed Shaukat Ali, who grabbed 1,218 votes while his rival PTI’s Muhammad Shah could only secure 257 votes.

In Multan, independent candidate Asim Sharif Butt won LA-38 after he got 355 votes while PTI’s Muhammad Shah could muster only 193 votes.

In LA-30 only  60 voters were registered while nine votes were cast. PML-N’s Nasir Hussain won by bagging five votes while PTI’s Muhammad Deen secured three votes. PML-N’s Asad Aleem Shah had won LA-39 (Valley-IV) in Rawalpindi after preliminary unofficial results showed that he had secured 1,032 votes ahead of the PPP’s Azhar Hussain Gillani who secured 893 votes.

Preliminary, unofficial results from LA-39 (Valley-VI) showed that PML-N’s Raja Muhammad Siddique was ahead with PPP’s Chaudhry Fakhar Zaman second.

PPP’s Abdul Ghaffar Lone was leading in LA-36 in the six districts of Karachi having secured 825 votes while PML-N’s Naeem Khan, independent Tahir Ali Wani and PTI’s Syed Rizwan trailed after having grabbed 168, 104 and 100 votes, respectively.

In six districts of LA-30, PTI’s Maqsooduzzaman was leading with 643 votes while PML-N’s Nasir Hussain Dar was second with 397.

For two polling stations for LA-30 and LA-36 established in Sukkur, 10 voters showed up including two women to vote and voting was over an hour after it began.

Voting in K-P and Fata also took place smoothly though the turnout was low with the JI in the lead in Risalpur and Swat where the party’s candidate received 40 and 107 votes respectively. PTI was leading in Nowshera Cantonment while the JKMC won in Upper Dir.

Rigging claims

MQM expressed serious reservations about elections in Kashmir alleging rigging.

In a news conference, MQM’s Rabita Committee claimed that around 20,000 new voters had been registered in Karachi and Hyderabad however, voting lists reflected only 8,000 voters.

PTI Chief Imran Khan congratulated PML-N on victory in AJK.  “Even though traditionally party in power in Islamabad tends to win AJK elections, I would still like to congratulate PML-N for its AJK win.”

Published in The Express Tribune, July 22^nd, 2016.