Rawalpindi district PA results: First-time voters shake up PML-N stronghold

In results received so far, lion secures nine seats while bat wins five.

ISLAMABAD:

Contrary to expectations, the contest for Punjab Assembly seats in Rawalpindi district proved a two-horse race between the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). Candidates running on the PTI platform put up a strong fight in the various provincial seats of the area, giving PML-N candidates a run for their money in their stronghold.

PML-N won eight of the 14 seats, while PTI secured five.

PTI gave a stiff challenge to Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, who was the MNA from NA-53 and the leader of the opposition in the previous term. He not only lost the National Assembly seat — his home seat — this year but also barely managed to win a Punjab Assembly seat that falls within NA-53, from where he ran on a PML-N ticket. Khan did, however, and won a seat in the lower house of parliament from another constituency, NA-52. He also won from PP-6 as an independent candidate with 51,766 votes — a 2,507 lead over PTI candidate Wasiq Abbasi. In all these competitions, PTI candidates emerged as his main rivals.

Unofficial Results

According to the unofficial ECP results available on the commission’s website, Khan received 48,109 votes in PP-7, only 314 more than second-placed Muhammad Siddique Khan of the PTI.

PTI supporters have leveled rigging allegations against Khan on the PP-6 and PP-7 seats.

Malik Taimoor Masood, a PTI candidate, won from PP-8, which like PP-7, also falls under NA-53, with 49,765 votes, according to ECP results.



In PP-11 and PP-12, which fall in the National Assembly constituency NA-55, PTI candidates edged past PML-N candidates with victory margins of less than 2,000 votes, according to ECP results.

The result reflected Sheikh Rasheed’s victory, whose party was supported in NA-55 by PTI.



Even though PTI chief Imran Khan won from elections NA-56, political breakups resulted in PTI getting only one provincial assembly seat from the area. PTI’s Arif Abbasi won from PP-13, but Raja Abdul Hanif secured PP-14 for the PML-N.

PP-9 and PP-10 were split among the two parties, as well.



Asif Mehmood of PTI barely beat PML-N’s Chaudhry Muhammad Ayaz by 219 votes in PP-9, but Malik Iftikhar Ahmed, the PML-N candidate in PP-10, scored a comfortable victory over Umer Tanveer of PTI with a lead of 6,368 votes, according to unofficial ECP results.



Iftikhar Ahmed, not the same person as the PP-10 candidate, and Raja Shaukat Aziz Bhatti registered comfortable victories for PML-N over PTI in PP-3 and PP-4 with 58,814 votes and 60,048 votes, according to unofficial ECP results.

Meanwhile, PTI failed to dent the PML-N’s hold in Murree’s PP-1 and PP-2 where PML-N candidates scored easy victories.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 14^th, 2013.