LAHORE The People's Party took a commanding lead in by-elections on Saturday for two National Assembly constituencies while the PML-N was certain to bag one of the two Punjab Assembly seats. An independent candidate bagged the other seat.
The seats had fallen vacant after their holders resigned for possessing fake degrees.
According to an initial count, the PPP had taken a comfortable lead in both NA-167 (Vehari) and NA-178 (Muzaffargarh) constituencies.
Asghar Jatt, the party's candidate in Vehari, was leading against his rivals — independent Nazir Arain and Pakistan Muslim League-N's Shahid Mehdi Nasim. The seat had fallen vacant after PML-Q's Nazir Jatt resigned during the hearing of a case about his degree by the Supreme Court.
The PPP awarded the by-poll ticket to Nazir Jatt, but he was disqualified by an election tribunal of the Lahore High Court. Asghar Jatt is his nephew and was the covering candidate.
PPP's Jamshed Dasti was leading by a margin of 3,000 votes against Pakistan Democratic Party's Nawabzada Iftikhar, son of the late Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, in NA-178.
Mr Dasti had a narrow escape when LHC's Multan bench dismissed pleas against his candidature because the petitioners were not candidates from the same constituency. The result of 244 out of 252 polling stations showed that Mr Dasti was certain to retain the seat.
In PP-259 (Muzaffargarh) constituency of the provincial assembly, PPP's Samiullah Khan Leghari lost to Basit Sultan Bukhari, an independent who was supported by the PML-N.
According to unofficial results, Mr Bukhari got 32,535 votes while Mr Leghari bagged 31,698. The seat was vacated by Allah Wasaya Chunnu Leghari. The PPP fielded him again but he was also disqualified when his candidature was challenged. His brother Samiullah Leghari was his covering candidate.
In PP-63, PML-N's Rana Ajmal polled 31,173 votes and defeated PPP Punjab president Rana Aftab who got 22,233 votes. The seat was vacated by Rana Ajmal who at that times belonged to the PML-Q. The PML-N fielded him for the by-poll. He also survived a challenge to his candidature on technical grounds because Rana Aftab, who moved the LHC, had not filed any objection with the returning officer.
TENSION
Police detained 22 Frontier Constabulary personnel from different polling stations of NA-167 but released them in the evening. Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah alleged that they had come to Burewala on the instructions of Interior Minister Rehman Malik. The interior ministry rejected the charge and said they were deployed for the security of three federal ministers campaigning for the PPP candidate.
VIOLENCE
A man was shot dead in Muzaffargarh and a voter died of cardiac arrest during a scuffle at a polling station in Faisalabad.
Minor scuffles between supporters of rival candidates took place at several polling stations. A number of voters could not exercise their right to vote because of mistakes and misprinting of their names, fathers' names, CNIC numbers and other particulars in the electoral rolls.
