MULTAN: Malik Wasif Raan of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) won PP-218 by-election by defeating the PPP candidate Malik Arshad Abbas Raan on Sunday.

According to unofficial results of 138 polling stations, Mr Wasif secured 46,988 votes against Malik Arshad who got 39,486 votes.

The seat had fallen vacant after the death of PTI MPA Malik Mazhar Abbas Raan and the PTI nominated his son for the constituency while the PML-N was supporting the PPP candidate.

According to Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), 138 polling stations were established for 203,188 registered voters in the constituency.

Thirty-two polling stations were declared highly sensitive and over 1,600 security officials were deployed on the polling day with six army and eight police personnel manning each polling station. Polling started at 8am and continued more or less smoothly till 5pm.

Malik Shahid Abbas Raan, Muhammad Tufail, Muhammad Ramzan and Muhammad Israrul Haq Cheema were also in the contest as independent candidates.

Former Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani alleged that the state machinery was used for the election campaign of the PTI candidate.

In the July 2018 election, Malik Mazhar Abbas Raan had got 45,817 votes while PPP candidate Malik Muhammad Abbas had bagged 37,417 votes with the PML-N’s Zaffar Ahmed securing 25,000 votes.

Published in Dawn, April 1st, 2019