PESHAWAR: As unofficial results of local government elections continued to pour in from different districts of Khyber Pakh­tunkhwa on Sunday night, the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf is leading in 10 of the 24 districts. The Awami National Party (ANP), which was routed in the 2013 general elections, has regained some of its lost grounds and is leading in Swabi, Toorghar and Charsadda districts.

Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) has secured most of the seats in Upper and Lower Dir district councils, while the PML-N maintained its dominance in Mansehra, Shangla and Abbottabad districts.

Know more: Six people killed in clashes during Khyber Pakhtunkhwa LG polls

According to unofficial results, Imran Khan’s PTI is leading in the district councils in Peshawar, Karak, D.I. Khan, Tank, Mardan, Battagram, Haripur, Swat, Kohat and Malakand. The party has also won 18 seats in the Abbottabad district council against 20 bagged by the PML-N and seven by independents.

The PTI is leading in Swat but it also faced some reverses. Of the total 67 seats, it won 24, followed by the PML-N 21 and the ANP eight.

ANP regains some of its lost ground, dominates in Swabi, Toorghar and Charsadda

During the last general elections, the PTI had won five of the seven provincial assembly seats, with one seat each bagged by the PML-N and the ANP.

Observers believe that former federal minister Amir Muqam’s vigorous campaigning in Swat and his native Shangla district where PML-N is leading in 13 of the 28 seats is a factor behind the party’s improved performance there.

In Peshawar, the PTI which had won 10 of the 11 provincial seats is leading with 32 of the 92 seats and officials said its tally might increase to around 45 because it was leading in so far undecided councils.

Jamaat-i-Islami, an ally of the PTI in the KP government, has won 11 seats in the provincial capital.

In Haripur, where the PML-N was once quite strong, the PTI secured 17 of the 45 seats. Twenty independent candidates were elected.

The ANP, considered an underdog after its defeat in the 2013 general elections, improved its position in its former strongholds of Swabi, Charsadda and Mardan. In Swabi, the party moved ahead of the ruling PTI and its ally Awami Jamhori Ittehad Pakistan (AJIP) by bagging 23 of the 56 district council seats. The PTI and AJIP secured six seats each.

The ANP had not won a single seat in Swabi in the 2013 elections.

Interestingly, KP’s senior minister Shehram Tarakai of the AJIP was embarrassed by the defeat of his uncle Iqbal Biland by an ANP candidate in his native union council/ward.

Similarly, in Charsadda where the ANP had suffered a humiliating defeat in the 2013 general elections, it secured 13 of the 49 seats, trailed by the PTI and Qaumi Watan Party of Aftab Sherpao with nine seats each. Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s JUI-F won seven seats in the district.

In Mardan district, the ANP won 22 of the 75 seats and the PTI 23. The result is embarrassing for the PTI because it has at present six of the eight MPAs from Mardan.

The JUI-F is leading in Hangu, Lakki Marwat, Chitral and Bannu districts, whereas in its strongholds of D.I. Khan and Tank, it is trailing the PTI. The JUI-F has secured seven of the 24 seats in Chitral, where the All Pakistan Muslim League of Gen Pervez Musharraf has won two seats. The PTI and JI have bagged five and six seats, respectively.

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2015

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