LAYYAH: The district went along the mainstream voting trend and elected Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) candidates on all two NA seats.

PTI’s Majeed Niazi won NA-187 by securing 93,903 votes. The runner-up was independent candidate Bahadur Sehar who got 88,225 votes.

For NA-188, PTI’s Niaz Ahmed Jhakhar secured 109,420 votes against PML-N’s Saqlain Bokhari who bagged 102,943 votes.

Those who won provincial seats are: PP-280 Ahmed Ali Aulakh (independent), PP-281 Shahabuddin Sehar (PTI), PP-282 Tahir Ali Randhawa (independent), PP-283 Ijaz Ahmed Achlana (PML-N), and PP-284 Rafaqat Ali Gilani (independent).

Also, PML-N’s defeated candidate for NA-188 alleged that their polling agents were harassed, confined and were not provided form 45. Mr Bukhari with Asghar Gujjar, MMA candidate for PP-284, told a press conference on Thursday.

Mr Gujjar said he questioned the transparency and impartiality of the polling staff. He said his polling agent Nazeer Rajput was harassed by the polling staff at the District Public School. He said even he was stopped from entering a polling station by the security staff.

Mr Bukhari said: “In my constituency’s 40 polling stations, my polling agents were being harassed by the polling staff and they were not provided the polling results even after many hours of ballot counting. Khuda Baksh, my polling agent at the Government Primary School of Khanwala Jadid polling station 246 was harassed and asked to sit in a separate room during the ballot paper count.”

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2018