MUZAFFARABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has bagged 31 seats, followed by three each by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Muslim Conference (MC), two by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and one by the Jammu Kashmir Peoples Party (JKPP) in the general elections held on Thursday for 41 seats of the Legislative Assembly, it was formally announced on Friday.

According to the AJK Election Commission, one independent candidate also managed to win his contest.

Of the total 29 seats in AJK, the PML-N won 22 while it grabbed nine from 12 constituencies located in various parts of Pakistan.

The MC clinched all its three seats from AJK. The PPP bagged two seats from AJK and one from Pakistan while the PTI won both its seats from Pakistan.

In Muzaffarabad division — comprising Muzaffarabad, Hattian Bala and Neelum districts — the PML-N made a clean sweep by winning all seven seats in the division.

Three seats each go to PPP and MC, two to PTI and one to JKPP

In Neelum district, PML-N secretary general Shah Ghulam Qadir secured a landmark victory with the highest lead of 23,000 votes. Mr Qadir, who defeated opponents from the PPP, PTI and MC, is the only politician whose son has also made his way to the assembly.

Asad Aleem Shah returned from a Kashmiri refugees’ constituency in Rawalpindi.

PML-N president Raja Farooq Haider won the poll in Hattian Bala district.

In the Poonch division, the PML-N claimed six seats and its ally JKPP won one while two seats went to the MC and winners included MC president Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan.

Of the 12 seats of the Mirpur division, the PML-N bagged eight while the PPP and MC claimed two seats and one seat, respectively.

Prime Minister Chaudhry Abdul Majeed, who heads the PPP, and his senior minister Chaudhry Yasin returned from Mirpur and Kotli districts, respectively.

The PTI was wiped out from the Mirpur division. The biggest setback for the party was the defeat of its regional president Barrister Sultan Mahmood at the hands of PML-N’s Chaudhry Mohammad Saeed, a novice in electoral politics.

Since 1985, Barrister Mahmood has won all eight elections but one, including the last year’s by-poll which he had contested as a PTI nominee after vacating his seat.

Over 37,000 personnel of security forces, including 22,000 from the army, were deployed to ensure law and order and transparency in the electoral exercise.

Deputy Election Commissioner Tariq Mahmood Butt said that despite a hot and humid weather the overall turnout was more than 65 per cent.

Talking to Dawn, PML-N regional chief Raja Farooq Haider said that the trust reposed by voters in the PML-N was a manifestation of the popularity of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the region.

“It’s also proof that Kashmiri voters have completely rejected the incessant diatribe of our opponents against him,” he added.

Mr Haider, who is said to a strong candidate for prime minister, vowed that his party’s government would focus on forceful projection of the unrelenting atrocities on unarmed and innocent Kashmiris by Indian forces, apart from making efforts to resolve long-pending local issues.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2016