GUJRAT: By bagging all the four seats of refugees in Gujranwala region for Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJ&K) Legislative Assembly, the ruling PML-N has once again established that the region is still it’s stronghold.
The PML-N would use to win most of the seats in Gujranwala region during the last almost 36 years but the election boycott by the PTI too paved the way for N’s victory in the region.
Tough contests were witnessed on LA-38 (Jammu 05) comprising refugees settled in three (Gujrat, Mandi Bahauddin and Wazirabad) districts.
The candidates belonging to the ruling coalition partners the PML-N and the PML-Q fought too hard but the PML-N’s Zeeshan Ali Younis secured victory against a former AJ&K minister and three times winner MLA Akbar Ibrahim of the PML-Q.
The N’s nominee obtained 13,652 votes against Q’s 9,523 votes whereas Jamaat-i-Islami’s Rana Umar Siddique stood third by securing 1755 votes and PPP’s Raja Shahid took 457 votes.
The turnout was 53 per cent whereas it was 59.20 per cent in 2021 LA polls on this seat.
In fact, election on this seat was fought between the traditional rivals the Nawabzada family and the Chaudharys of PML-Q as ex MPA Nawabzada Haider Mehdi of the PML-N and Q-MNA Chaudhary Hussain Elahi mainly spearheaded the election campaigns of their respective party candidates.
Senior PML-Q leaders and ministers like Chaudhary Salik Hussain and Chaudhary Shafay Hussain did not participate in the election campaign of their party candidate.
In LA-35 (Gujranwala, Hafizabad districts and Pasrur (Sialkot), the PML N candidate Ismael Gujjar bagged an easy victory by securing 2,318 votes against independent Sirdar Muhammad Ghias who took 5,965 votes and stood runners up whereas Istehkam Pakistan Party aspirants bagged 2,757 votes, JI’s Sajidur Rehman took 650 votes and PPP’s Muhammad Asif obtained 620 votes.
In LA-36 Sialkot, Hafiz Ahsan Raza of the PML-N won the seat by securing 27,218 votes against PPP’s Ahsan Ismael who took 12,980 votes whereas PML-Q’s Ghazanfar Ali secured 1124 votes and IPP’s Adeeb Amjad Butt took only 59 votes.
Similarly, in LA-37 Narowal, the PML-N’s Maryam Javed won the seat by securing 23,828 votes and her rival candidate Usman Aleem of Jammu and Kashmir united movement obtained 18,035 votes.
Except in Sialkot LA-36, the performance of PPP candidates was very poor in terms of votes as its nominee in LA 38 (Gujrat) Raja Shahid Iqbal has been the resident of Lalamusa, the hometown of PPP stalwart Qamar Zaman Kaira who was never seen in the constituency during the campaign for being busy with the senior party leadership in AJ&K.
A senior PML-N leader said Khawaja Saad Rafique made hectic efforts to forge unity among the party ranks in the Gujranwala region and activated workers in the campaign by visiting all the constituencies of the region that paid the dividends.
Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2026
