KARACHI:
In the 2018 general elections, Malik Pervaiz from the PML-N won the NA 133 seat by bagging close to 90,000 votes. He was followed by Ejaz Chaudhary from the PTI with 77,000 votes, Matloob Ahmed from the TLP with 13,000 votes, and Aslam Gill from the PPP with 5,500 votes. It was a very well contested constituency with about 52% votes being cast.
In the same constituency, the unofficial results of the by-election that took place on December 5, 2021 shows that the seat has been retained by the PML-N with Mrs Shaista Pervaiz Malik bagging about 47,000 votes. She was followed by Aslam Gill with 32,000 votes. The overall voter participation was close to a dismal 18%. While the PPP has gained popularity in terms of votes, the PML-N received about half of the votes as they did in 2018. This should be a cause for concern for them. They either failed to motivate their voters to come out to vote or their popularity seems to be slowly eroding, with PPP gaining a strong foothold. In any case, I wonder if a candidate getting about 11% of the total votes in a constituency where only 18% of the total voters participated can be called a true representative of the people.
Raja Shafaatullah
Islamabad
Published in The Express Tribune, December 8th, 2021.
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