MUZAFFARABAD: The PPP defeated its partner in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) coalition government, PML-N, by a margin of 5,270 votes in a by-election on Thursday.
According to unofficial and unverified results issued by the returning officer, PPP’s Sardar Zia Qamar bagged 25,755 votes against 20,485 by Mushtaq Ahmed Minhas of the PML-N.
Retired colonel Raja Zameer of the PTI could secure 4,942 votes.
The by-election in LA-15, Bagh-II, with 101,146 registered voters, 48,038 of them women, had become due after the disqualification of former prime minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas by the AJK high court on April 11.
Mr Ilyas had defeated Mr Qamar in the 2021 general elections as a PTI nominee. However, the former premier, who has lately quit the PTI, did not field anyone as his nominee, which observers said benefitted the PPP candidat, belonging to his Mughal clan.
Defeats coalition partner PML-N’s candidate by 5,270 votes
Mr Qamar’s father Sardar Qamar Zaman has won five out of eight elections from Bagh since 1990.
The election commission had set up 189 polling stations in the constituency, of which 30 and 20 were declared sensitive and the most sensitive, respectively.
As many as 2500 police personnel and 350 paramilitary troops were deployed in the constituency to maintain law and order.
Witnesses said that polling saw incidents of violence at some polling stations, which left some persons injured or bruised.
In Nikka Narr, polling remained suspended for several hours, after the PML-N workers caught a member of the polling staff red-handed with ballot papers marked in favour of the PPP candidate in his possession.
He was taken by the police into custody.
Ashraf Khan, a 65 years old shopkeeper, commented that the election was outwardly contested by political parties, but inwardly by the clans.
“All contesting parties begged votes in the name of the clan, rather than the ideology,” he remarked.
Mr Minhas, a journalist turned politician who had clinched victory in his maiden election from this constituency in 2016, conceded his defeat, and was seen in a picture embracing and greeting to Mr Qamar following the announcement of unofficial results.
When contacted by Dawn on the phone, Mr Qamar said: “This victory is a reflection of people’s trust in a genuine and humble political worker who prefers to stay among them through thick and thin.”
Published in Dawn, June 9th, 2023
