ISLAMABAD, Feb 21: Candidates for National Assembly seats from Karachi secured the highest number of votes polled in the Feb 18 elections.

Eight of the 20 National Assembly seats from Karachi also registered the highest increase in voter turnout.

Five of the seats were won by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) with more than 20 per cent increase in the number of votes polled, compared with the 2002 elections.

Sufyan Yousuf of the MQM topped the list by securing 186, 933 (95.6 per cent) votes out of the 195,554 polled in NA-246 (Karachi-VIII). PPP’s Sohail Ansari who was the runner-up got only 6,741 votes.

The total number of registered voters in the constituency is 310,045.

Shaikh Salahuddin of the MQM secured 174,044 votes (93 per cent) of the 187,074 polled in NA-244.

Against him, Ghulam Qadir of the PPP got only 9,272 votes. The total number of registered voters in the constituency is 290,891.

In NA-247 (Karachi-IX), MQM’s Dr Nadeem Ehsan got 168,007 votes (91.3 per cent).