GUJRAT: Bilal Farooq Tarrar, the ruling PML-N candidate for the Wazirabad NA-66 by-polls, has been declared elected unopposed as other candidates retired from the race.

He is the younger brother of Federal Minister for Information Attaullah Tarrar.

Returning Officer Shabeer Hussain Butt issued a notification on Saturday, declaring the PML-N nominee as elected unopposed.

The seat had fallen vacant in August last in the wake of conviction of the then Punjab PTI president and MNA Muhammad Ahmed Chattha in a case of May 9 riots.

Scheduled for Sept 18, the by-polls were postponed due to massive flooding in Wazirabad and surrounding areas due to rain. The Election Commission of Pakistan rescheduled the ballot to Nov 23.

Sources in RO office said 30 aspirants had filed their papers, including ex-MPA Bilal Farooq Tarrar of the PML N, ex-MPA Ijaz Samman of the PPP, four family members of veteran politician Hamid Nasir Chattha and others.

However, all four members of the Chattha family, including Ahmed Chattha, his wife Ain Chattha, brother Fayyaz Chattha, also a former Gujranwala district nazim, and his daughter, had withdrawn their nomination papers after PTI founder Imran Khan announced boycott of the by-polls in Punjab.

PPP’s Ijaz Samman too withdrew his papers as per the seat adjustment formula of his party with the PML- N whereas some other independent candidates also quit the race.

Two candidates backed by Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) and some others submitted their retirement, paving the way for Bilal Tarrar’s return unopposed.

The notification has been sent to the ECP for the issuance of a formal notification of the returned candidate.

Belonging to Pir Kot village near Gakhar Mandi town of Gujranwala, Bilal Tarrar had earlier been elected as an MPA twice from a Punjab Assembly seat of Rahwali and Gakhar towns but he lost the February 2024 polls on that PA seat.

Bilal Tarrar is the grandson of former president Rafique Tarrar and this is for the first time that the Tarrar family contested an NA seat of Wazirabad as earlier in February 2024 polls, Attaullah Tarrar applied for the PML-N ticket from a Gujranwala NA seat which was resisted by senior parliamentarian and former federal minister Mahmood Basheer Virk as the latter succeeded in keeping the senior Tarrar away.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has congratulated the unopposed election.

Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2025