PESHAWAR: The final phase of local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) was completed Sunday after polls for nazim and naib nazim were held in the province's 23 districts, with the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) victorious in 10 districts including Peshawar, Nowshera, Charsadda, DI Khan, Karak, Tank, Haripur, Torghar, Abbotabad and Battagram.

In the provincial capital – Peshawar – PTI's Arbab Asim was elected district nazim unopposed, with the PTI also able to get nazims elected in three of the city's four towns. Asim's oath-taking ceremony was also conducted earlier in the day, reported DawnNews.

In Nowshera, chief minister Pervez Khattak's brother, Liquat Khattak, was elected nazim with the PTI also bagging the naib nazim slot.

In Charsadda, PTI's Fahad Khan was elected district nazim, with Jamaat-i-Islami's Masood Shah as his deputy.

According to unofficial results on Radio Pakistan, Jamaat-i-Islami, which is the ruling PTI's coalition partner in the KP government, won in Chitral, Buner, Upper and Lower Dir, while the PML-N succeeded in Shangla, Mansehra and Swat.

The Pakistan Peoples Party was able to win in Malakand and Karak, while the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam – Fazl succeeded in Kohat and Lakki Marwat. Awami National Party won in two districts.

The tripartite alliance of Awami National Party, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam – Fazl and Pakistan Peoples Party boycotted the nazim and naib nazim elections in the district and three towns of Peshawar but did not boycott such elections in Town-4 of Peshawar and some other districts where the alliance had sufficient number of councillors to form governments.

Read: Tripartite alliance to boycott nazim elections in Peshawar.

Elections were not held in Kohistan and Bannu due to security reasons.

PTI Chairman Imran Khan congratulated the KP government on the successful holding of local government elections.

He said the empowerment of 40,000 persons, including women, was a major milestone in the democratic history of Pakistan.

Imran Khan pointed out that the PTI had fulfilled its commitment of devolving real power to the people, who will now have the political and financial authority to make decisions about their lives from the village level up – with the KP government’s plan to transfer 30 per cent of funds to the local level.

(With input by Irfan Haider from Islamabad.)