PML-N deals another blow to PTI

PML-N wins major political victory by taking the Chichawatni constituency that was previously held by PTI's Rai...

SAHIWAL: The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Monday won a major political victory by taking the Chichawatni constituency that was previously held by its arch-rival – the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Rai Hassan Nawaz who was disqualified by courts for asset concealment.

The PTI lost the by-election in the National Assembly constituency NA-62 (Chichawatni), but not before giving a run to the ruling party for its money. It is the third consecutive legislature victory in which the PML-N’s candidates returned as winner. The PML-N had also won by-elections in NA-63 (Jhelum-II) and the Punjab Assembly’s PP-232 (Vehari-I).



In Chichawatni, PTI candidate Rai Murtaza was outnumbered by PML-N’s Muhammad Tufail Jutt with a margin of 13,369 votes in the unofficial results of 293 polling stations. PML-N’s Jutt secured 76,580 votes, PTI’s Murtaza (63,211) while Shahzad Saeed Cheema of the PPP came third with 15,873 votes.

The victory would serve as a morale booster for the ruling party that is involved in a kind of ‘pitched battle’ with the PTI over allegations of rigging and corruption in the wake of the Panama Papers revelations.

Rai Hasan Nawaz won the seat on the PTI ticket in 2013. He challenged his disqualification in the Supreme Court. As the court did not take up his case on the last hearing on September 5, he decided to go ahead with Rai Murtaza as the PTI candidate.



Meanwhile, polling that started at 9am continued till 5pm in a largely peaceful way. Besides police, contingents of army and Rangers were also deployed in the constituency to prevent any untoward incident.

Hamza Shahbaz Sharif congratulated the winning PML-N candidate and termed the victory a proof of Nawaz Sharif’s “wisdom” and “tolerance”.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 20^th, 2016.