MULTAN: The present-day NA-149 (Multan II) was carved out of urban areas of NA-115 after a nationwide census was conducted in 1998.

In 1988, PPP’s Riaz Husain Qureshi with a 41pc vote share won NA-115 against Pakistan Awami Ittehad’s Syed Hamid Saeed Kazmi of JUP (Noorani) who had a vote share of 34pc and Babu Ferozdin Ansari of the Jamaat-i-Islami 24pc.

Also read: NA-149 bypoll Local factors to decide Hashmi’s fate: Sana

During 1990 elections, united religious-right candidate Kazmi on JUP-N ticket capturing 58pc votes defeated PPP’s Qureshi who had 40pc vote share.

Similarly, in 1993, NA-115 was bagged by Haji Boota on a Nawaz Sharif’s PML ticket with 51pc vote share against PPP’s Riaz Hussain Qureshi’s vote share of 44pc captured by united-right candidate.

In 1997, the PPP replaced Qureshi with Salahuddin Dogar in NA-115 who managed a vote share of 29pc and lost to PML’s Haji Boota’s vote share of 66pc.

Fast forward to 2002: split right with vote shares of 23pc for MMA, 22pc for PML-N and 19pc for PML-Q helped PPP’s Liaquat Ali Dogar (vote share of 35pc) capture freshly constituted NA-149.

During 2008 polls, the PML-N consolidated its position with Javed Hashmi bagging 55pc votes against PPP’s Malik Salahuddin Dogar who bagged 36pc of votes. Interestingly, Javed Hashmi contesting on a PTI ticket for 2013 elections won with his career best 83,640 - a vote share of 45pc against PML-N’s Sheikh Muhammad Tariq Rasheed (73,861 votes or 39pc vote share). He also reduced PPP’s Malik Muhammad Amir Dogar to a vote share of mere 11pc who ironically is now opposing him as an independent in by-election with the PTI support.–DawnGIS

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2014