RAWALPINDI, Oct 11: The People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) emerged as the single largest party in Rawalpindi district by winning three national and five provincial assembly seats out of a total of seven national and 14 provincial assembly seats.

The position of other political parties in the district is that the PML-N won one national assembly and four provincial assembly seats; the PML-Q succeeded in winning two provincial assembly seats while the MMA won a single provincial assembly seat.

Candidates who abandoned their parent parties to contest as independent candidates also bagged a significant number of seats.

Several leading names of the national politics, while contesting from Rawalpindi constituencies, lost the contest.

The heavyweights who failed to succeed in the Rawalpindi district constituencies were; the chairman of the PML-N, Raja Zafarul Haq, vice-president of the PML-N, Syed Zafar Ali Shah, president of the PML-Z, Ijazul Haq, chief of the Pakistan Awami Tehrik, Dr Tahirul Qadri; and president of PML-Q’s women wing, Ms Nilofer Bakhtiar. Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan (PML-N) lost from one of the two constituencies.

All the relatives of the heads of local bodies lost their bid for the provincial and national assembly seats.

Those who lost their bids are; Raja Hamid Nawaz, brother of Tehsil Nazim, Raja Hamid Nawaz; Raja Basharat, who is the chief organizer of the PML-Q and cousin of Tehsil Nazim; Asim Javed, son of the District Naib Nazim, Javed Ikhlas; and Dr Tehmina Sajjad, wife of the Tehsil Naib Nazim, Sajjad Khan.

According to the preliminary results issued by the election authorities, Ghulam Murtaza Satti, who left the PML-Q to join the PPP just before elections, won from NA-50 by bagging 74,250 votes against the once invincible, Shahid Khaqqan Abbassi, who got 63,785 votes.

The secretary-general of PPP, Raja Pervez Ashraf, won the Gujar Khan seat (NA-51) obtaining 82,103 votes. His closest opponent was Raja Shaukat Aziz Bhatti, who managed to get 46,178 votes. Mr Bhatti is a close aide of the District Naib Nazim, Raja Javed Ikhlas. The chief of the PAT, Dr Tahirul Qadri, got 15,200 votes from this constituency.

In NA-52, the former federal minister, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, while contesting on a PML-N ticket won by getting 73,663 votes. He defeated Raja Nasir of the PML-Q, who obtained 56,644 votes.

The PPP dissident, Sarwar Khan, while contesting as an independent candidate for NA-53 (Taxila-Wah) constituency, got 66,786 votes and defeated Chaudhry Nisar (PML-N), who bagged 57,096 votes.

Zamurad Khan of the PPP regained power in NA-54 Rawalpindi constituency by getting 31,487 votes. He defeated the chiefs of two factions of the PML. The PML-N chairman, Raja Zafarul Haq, got 28,804 votes and the PML-Z chief, Ijazul Haq, got 2,666 votes.

The former federal minister, Shiekh Rashid Ahmed, who was not given a PML-N ticket, while contesting as an independent candidate for NA-55 got 42,865 votes and defeated his arch-rival, Agha Riazul Islam, who obtained 30,603 votes.

Sardar Tariq of the PML-N, who was given a party ticket ahead of Shiekh Rashid, managed 14,670 votes.

The NA-56 contest was also won by Sheikh Rashid Ahmed. He got 30,950 votes from this constituency to defeat Sardar Shaukat Hayat of the PPP, who obtained 15,886 votes.

Meanwhile, Raja Shafqat Abbassi won the PP-1 seat by getting 29,064 votes. His closest rival was Saifullah Saifi of the MMA, who got 26,205 votes.

The son of the PML-N chairman, Raja Mohammad Ali, while contesting for PP-2, obtained 37,369 votes and defeated Lt-Col Mohammad Shabbir Awan (retired) of the PPP, who got 34,220 votes.

The PP-3 contest was won by Raja Tariq Kiani of the PPP. He got over 23,000 votes to defeat candidates of different parties including the PAT, PML-N, PML-Q, MMA and also those people who contested as independent candidates.

The PPP candidate, Brig Mohammad Hassan (retired), contesting for PP-4 clinched 32,461 votes to defeat Asim Javed of the PML-Q, son of the District Naib Nazim, Raja Javed Ikhlas. The PML-Q candidate received 27,328 votes.

The competition for PP-5 was won by the PML-Q candidate, Mushtaq Ahmed Kiani, who obtained 29,310 votes. Chaudhry Zafar Iqbal of the PPP remained second by getting 28,569 votes.

In PP-6, Raja Arshad Mehmood of the PML-N got 19,079 votes and defeated the chief organizer of the PML-Q, Raja Basharat. Mr Basharat got 14,701 votes.

Independent candidates won both the provincial assembly seats of PP-7 (Taxila) and PP-8 (Wah).

In PP-7, Chaudhry Kamran Aslam got 35,503 votes and he defeated Mr Safeer Khan of the PML-N. The PML-N candidate obtained 25,518 votes.

The PP-8 contest was won by the independent candidate, Sarwar Khan. He received 21,957 votes against the MMA candidate, Mohammad Waqas, who got 17,097 votes.

Chaudhry Mohammad Ayaz of the PML-N, by obtaining 12,357 votes won the PP-9 seat. The runner-up was the PPP candidate, Chaudhry Waris Khan, who got 10,786 votes.

The other cantonment seat PP-10 was won by the PML-N candidate, Malik Abrar Ahmed, who obtained 17,009 votes. He had a close contest with Masood Akhtar of the PPP, who bagged 16,483 votes.

Another close contest was witnessed between Raja Rashid Hafeez of the PML-Q (15,532 votes) and Khalid Nawaz Bobby of the PPP. However, the PP-11 seat was won by the PML-Q candidate who got 15,532 vote against 14,661 votes received by the PPP candidate.

The PPP candidate, Amir Fida Piracha, managed to win the PP- 12 contest by getting 13,253 votes. He defeated the independent candidate, Ijaz Khan Jazzi, who got 10,961 votes.

The PP-13 seat was bagged by the PPP candidate, Ishtiaq Mirza. Mr Mirza got 11,785 votes, while the runner-up from this constituency, Mrs Tehmina Sajjad, obtained 8,622 votes.

Fiazul Hassan Chauhan of the MMA won the PP-14 seat by defeating Raja Rashid Naseem Abbassi of the PPP and Raja Atif Kiyani of the PML-Q.