PESHAWAR: The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf won the highest number of slots for mayor and chairman of city and tehsil councils across 18 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa which voted in the second phase of local bodies elections on Thursday.

According to provisional consolidated results relea­sed by the Election Comm­ission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday, the PTI emerged victorious in 21 tehsils out of the 45 results declared by the ECP. Results for 20 tehsils were awaited.

The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl took six seats of tehsil councils, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz four and the Awami National Party and the Jamaat-i-Islami won two each. Six seats were won by independent candidates.

The official provisional consolidated results dec­lared by the ECP show that PTI either won the tehsil council seat or was declared runner-up.

The PTI made a clean sweep of constituencies in Swat and Malakand districts while it won most of the seats in Shangla and Lower Dir districts.

The Pakistan Peoples Par­ty, Majlis-i-Wahdatul Mus­li­meen, Qaumi Watan Party and Pakistan Rah-i-Haq Party secured one seat each.

The districts which went to the polls were: Abbot­tabad, Mansehra, Batta­gram, Torghar, Kohistan Upper, Kohistan Lower, Kolai-Palas, Kohistan, Swat, Malakand, Shangla, Lower and Upper Dir, Upper and Lower Chitral, Kurram, Orakzai and North and South Waziristan.

The PTI made an impressive show in Swat, the home town of Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, grabbing almost all tehsil council seats.

Abdullah Khan, the chief minister’s brother, was elected chairman of his native Matta tehsil. The ruling party recorded its first electoral victories in Upper and Lower Chitral districts.

In Upper Chitral, PTI took the Mastuj and Mulkhow-Torkhow tehsils while in Lower Chitral the ruling party’s candidate Shahzada Amanur Rehman won the seat for Chitral city.

Pakistan Peoples Party was poised to win the Drosh tehsil seat as its candidate was well in front of his closest rival from the ruling PTI.

The performance of JUI-F, which had emerged as the largest party in the first phase by winning 23 of the 66 tehsil councils, has remained unimpressive so far.

In the first phase of the polls on Dec 19, the JUI-F had bagged 23 slots of mayor/chairman of tehsil councils while PTI trailed with 18 seats.

Independent candidates were successful on 10 seats of tehsil council chairman/mayor, whereas the ANP had won seven seats during the first phase in December. Three seats were won by PML-N, two each by JI and Tehreek-i-Islahat Pakistan and one by PPP.

Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2022