June 27, 2008	Friday	Jamadi-us-Sani 22, 1429

GUJRANWALA, June 26: PPP’s Qaisar Sandhu has obtained an unassailable lead of 23,000 votes against his immediate rival in the by-poll held on the PP-99 seat.

According to unofficial results obtained so far from 107 polling stations out of a total 116, Qaisar Sandhu clinched 33,565 votes while his rival PML-Q candidate Dr Sohail Zafar Cheema got 10,093 votes.

At least 25 aspirants were in the run, but the main contestants were PPP’s Qaisar Sandhu advocate, brother of deceased PPP nominee Nasir Sandhu, and PML-Q’s Dr Sohail Zafar Cheema, former provincial minister and the son of PML-Q district president Zafarullah Cheema.

PML-N candidate Hassan Saif Butter had already withdrawn his nomination papers. Voters of the PPP and PML-N started gathering at polling stations and cast their votes in favour of their combined candidate, Qaisar Sandhu.

Wahndo police arrested Nandipur town nazim Rizwan Ahmad Cheema, brother of the PML-Q candidate, for possessing arms at a polling station. He was detained at the police station for four hours and was released only when he showed the license.

No untoward incident was reported and the polling was held peacefully.