October 13, 2002	Sunday	Sha'aban 6, 1423

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HARIPUR, Oct 12: In a significant change of voters’ mindset, the former ruling party, Pakistan Muslim League (N), suffered a complete rout in Haripur.

The voters in the district, who had always supported the PML-N nominees since 1985, decided on Thursday to embark on the bandwagon of change. They sent a clear signal that they liked young leadership.

In NA-19 Haripur, Omar Ayub, son of Gohar Ayub, was elected by securing 81,099 votes against 61,826 votes bagged by PML-N provincial president Pir Sabir Shah.

Omar’s third rival, Ghulam Nabi of the MMA, received 30,270 votes. Total votes polled were 207,910 out of 453,508. Some 6,190 votes were rejected and the turnout was recorded at 45.84 per cent.

On PF-49 Haripur 1, Raja Faisal Zaman, son of Raja Sikandar Zaman, defeated his nephew Raja Shiraz Haider of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) with 24,841 votes. He bagged 30,107 votes while his close rival received 15,266 votes.

Maulana Abdul Haq of the MMA got 1,090 votes and Sajjad Jadoon, an independent candidate, secured 3,115 votes. The turnout in this constituency remained 48.77pc.

In PF-50, most stunning results came as the former provincial minister Yousaf Ayub, who had earlier won this seat thrice, could not retain the seat this time and lost to young Qazi Mohammad of the PML-Q by a margin of 6,197 votes. Yousaf Ayub bagged 16,117 votes while Qazi Mohammad received 22,314 votes; Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) candidate secured 8,585 votes, Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) contestant Malik Jalil obtained 6,823 and Seth Naveed got only 240 votes. The turnout reported as 45.9pc.

The PF-51 constituency witnessed a surprising result when Akhter Nawaz Khan, an independent candidate, turned table on Sardar Mushtaq of the PML-N by a victory margin of 7,444 votes.

Akhter Nawaz, who contested on the election symbol of crescent, had earlier lost three elections to Pir Sabir Shah. Akhter Nawaz obtained 27,719 votes while Sardar Mushtaq could bag 19,275 votes, and MMA’s Shamsul Islam got 2,748 votes. The voter turnout in this constituency was recorded at 48.2pc.

In PF-52 Haripur 4, Pir Sabir Shah, who was defeated by Omar Ayub in the fight for NA-19, savoured a humiliating defeat at the hand of another youngster, Faisal Zaman.