By-elections: PML-N bags one more Senate seat

Jaffar Iqbal wins unopposed as opponent withdraws .

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz candidate Chaudhry Jaffar Iqbal has been elected as a senator in the by-elections from Rahim Yar Khan. The unofficial declaration came on Wednesday by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) after Iqbal’s opponent PPP’s Liaqat Dogar withdrew his nomination papers.

ECP officials said that a notification in this regard will be issued later.

The ECP had scheduled the voting for one vacant seat on January 7 after the demise of PPP Senator Salahuddin Dogar.



According to PML-N officials, after new Punjab governor Makhdoom Ahmed Mehmood took charge, the party’s strategy in Rahim Yar Khan and Bahawalpur regions had been reviewed.

Earlier, Iqbal had been contesting election from NA-196 in RY Khan. However, he was nominated for the Senate by-elections this time and was replaced by Mian Imtiaz.



Party sources say that Iqbal’s daughter MPA Zeb Jaffar will likely be accommodated in the next assembly probably on a reserve seat for women.

They said the party was committed to winning at least four out of the six seats in Rahim Yar Khan.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 3^rd, 2013.