MUZAFFARABAD, July 20: The MQM bagged on Wednesday two seats in an election for the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly from two constituencies of refugees in Pakistan whereas the People’s Party AJK emerged victorious from a constituency located in the AJK territory.

According to an unofficial announcement, MQM’s Mohammad Tahir Khokhar bagged 31,414 of the nearly 67,000 votes for LA-30 (Jammu and others-I). Over 10,000 of these voters are based in Punjab and except for 66 obtained by Mr Khokhar, the rest were bagged by a PML-N candidate.

Mohammad Salim Butt of the MQM bagged about 4,000 of the nearly 7,000 votes for LA-36 (Valley-I).

The elections in the two constituencies were postponed by the AJK Election Commission because of the alleged law and order problem. The decision triggered a political storm in the country, leading to a boycott of AJK polls by the MQM and it’s quitting of the PPP-led coalition government. As a goodwill gesture, the PPAJK withdrew its candidates in favour of the MQM nominees.

In LA-16 (Bagh-IV), Faisal Mumtaz Rathore of the PPAJK clinched victory in a re-polling held in eight polling stations amid tension and loss of one life. Mr Rathore was leading by over 1,500 votes when the re-polling was ordered following the alleged tampering with ballot boxes.

On a petition filed by Mr Rathore’s closest rival, the Muslim Conference’s Chaudhry Mohammad Aziz, the AJK High Court had ruled that re-polling be held in 13 stations.

But the order was suspended by the AJK Supreme Court, which directed the Election Commission to conduct re-polling in eight stations.—Tariq Naqash