MUZAFFARABAD: Barrister Sultan Mahmood, regional president of the Pakis­tan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), won the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Assembly by-election on Sunday.

He defeated Chaudhry Sohaib Saeed of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) by 2,860 votes, officials said.

According to unofficial results from all 119 polling stations in LA-III, Mirpur-3, the 64-year-old veteran bagged 17,673 votes as against 14,813 secured by his 33-year-old rival, a new entrant to politics.

“Today’s result has burst the bubble of the PML-N government that it has done development and improved governance in the state,” remarked Khawaja Farooq Ahmed, PTI’s central joint secretary and former AJK minister, while speaking to Dawn from Mr Mahmood’s election office in downtown Mirpur, amid celebrations.

“It has also set the stage for our victory in the next general elections,” he claimed.

There were 14 candidates in the fray, but the real contest was between the PTI and PML-N nominees.

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had also thrown its weight behind the PML-N under an “agreement” between the leadership of both parties, whereby they had resolved to support the candidate in a by-election in any constituency from the same party that had clinched victory there in general elections.

The Jamaat-i-Islami had also announced its support for the PML-N candidate.

There were reports that some PPP activists had either remained aloof or had supported the PTI candidate. Similarly, the PML-N had to suspend the basic membership of at least five of its local leaders for announcing their support to Mr Mahmood.

LA-III, Mirpur-3 comprised the municipal and some of the peripheral areas of the lakeside city of Mirpur, with 59,494 registered voters — 32,490 of them men and the rest women.

However, the voter turnout was low, according to officials.

The government had taken extraordinary measures to ensure violence-free atmosphere by dividing the constituency into eight zones and 20 sectors and deploying as many as 2,719 police personnel to maintain law and order.

According to witnesses, except for a few incidents of verbal brawl, the polling process that began at about 8am and concluded at 5pm remained peaceful by and large.

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2019