Imran bowls all out

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Wednesday looked clearly leading in the general elections in the Centre, as indicated in the 30 percent result projections, followed by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). The PTI is also in a position to form governments in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab with the help of other parties.

As per the latest official results, the PTI is heading for victory on around 110 seats of the National Assembly with the PML-N touching the figure of 68, followed by the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) with 38 seats, which indicates that Pakistan will have a hung parliament this time.

The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) was in strong position on 10 seats of the National Assembly, MQM on eight seats, Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) on six seats, and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) on three seats. So far, independents have emerged as the fourth major reality with 18 in numbers.

In the Punjab, the PML-N was in the lead at 121 seats of the provincial assembly, while the PTI candidates were ahead of their opponents in 115 constituencies. Independent candidates are likely to emerge winners in 25 to 30 seats.

With the PTI in a strong position to form the government in the Centre, if the successful independent MPAs from Punjab threw their weight behind the PTI, it will be in a position to also form the government in Punjab. On Wednesday, polling was held on 296 out of 297 seats of the Punjab Assembly.

The performance of candidates of the PPP on Punjab Assembly seats can also create an interesting situation as the party has claimed that they were in lead in 27 constituencies.

The PTI is close to securing wide majority in KP where the party is likely to win at least 65 out of 99 general seats with the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) contending with five and Awami National Party (ANP) and independents with eight seats each.

On the other hand, it is the PPP which is going to retain its government in Sindh, as it leads on 73 out of 130 general seats, followed by the PTI with 21 and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM) with 16 seats.

Balochistan is set to experience another coalition government with Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) and Balochistan National Party (BNP) having bright chances of winning 13 and nine seats respectively out of the 51 general seats of the provincial assembly.

All the three candidates of PTI in Islamabad, including Imran Khan, Asad Umar and Raja Khurram Nawaz were leading their rivals in NA-53, 54 and 52 convincingly and this was quite symbolic. Previously, the federal capital had two NA seats and one was pocketed by the PTI and the other by PML-N.

The PTI candidates are poised to win all the five National Assembly constituencies in Peshawar, according to unofficial results.

The ANP leader and candidate on NA-31 constituency Ghulam Ahmad Bilour conceded defeat in the general election. Shaukat Ali of the PTI got 72,822 votes while Ghulam Ahmad Bilour secured 40,372 votes.

Ghulam Ahmad Bilour said it appears that Imran Khan was the favourite candidate of the

people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. PPP leader Arbab Alamgir also congratulated PTI Chairman Imran Khan on his party’s leading position in the 2018 general elections.

Sher Ali Arbab of the PTI won the NA-30 seat. He was followed by Arbab Najibullah of the MMA.

PTI’s Nasir Khan Musazai is leading in NA-29 followed by Mufti Naeem Jan of the MMA. Amir Ayub of the PTI is also in a strong position on NA-28 followed by Sabir Hussain Awan of MMA.

PTI’s Noor Alam Khan had a comfortable lead in NA-27 over Ghulam Ali of the MMA.

The PTI candidates are leading on 12 of the 13 provincial assembly seats in Peshawar. According to preliminary and unofficial results, the PTI is leading on 12 seats. The election on PK-78 had been postponed after the death of Awami National Party (ANP) candidate Haroon Bashir Bilour in a suicide attack on an election meeting in Peshawar’s Yakatoot locality on July 10.

According to unofficial results, former lawmaker Mehmood Jan of PTI is leading in PK-66 followed by Hafiz Hashmat Khan of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA). Arbab Wasim of PTI is leading in PK-67 while the runner-up is Razaullah of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

In PK-68, Arbab Jahandad of PTI is leading, followed by Malik Tehmash Khan of the PPP. Ishtiaq Urmar of the PTI is leading in PK-69 while an independent, Arbab Usman, is on the second position. The PK-70 is the only constituency in the Peshawar district where ANP candidate Khushdil Khan, a former MPA and deputy speaker of the provincial assembly, is leading the contest. Shah Farman, a former provincial minister of the PTI, is on second position.

But Shah Farman of the PTI is leading on PK-71 constituency followed by Sifatullah of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz. Shah Farman contested from both PK-70 and PK-71. Fahim Ahmad of PTI is the leading candidate in PK-72 followed by Ashfaq Khalil of ANP. Taimur Saleem Khan Jhagra of PTI is leading in PK-73, a largely urban constituency in Peshawar. Maulana Amanullah Haqqani of MMA who is a former provincial minister was placed second. PTI candidate Pir Fida Muhammad is leading in the PK-74 constituency. He is followed by Attiqur Rehman of MMA. Malik Wajidullah of PTI is leading in PK-75 while Ibrahim Qasmi of Pakistan Rah-e-Haq party is on the second position. Asif Khan of PTI is leading in the PK-76 constituency. Former MPA Hidayatullah Khan of ANP was placed second. Two former MPAs, Ziaullah Afridi and Dr Zakir Shah, were trailing in this constituency. PTI candidate Fazal Elahi, who is a former lawmaker, is leading in PK-79 followed by Omar Khitab of PPP.

In NA-17, Haripur, PTI's Umer Ayub Khan won the election in Haripur after he attained 166,786 votes. PML-N's Babar Nawaz Khan stood runner-up in the polls with 149,292 votes. Ali Khan Jadoon has emerged victorious from NA-16 Abbottabad-2 by securing 91,770 votes. Jadoon was followed by PML-N candidate Malik Mohammad Awan, who bagged 57,995 votes. PTI's Amir Dogar won the election in NA-155 Multan-2 by attaining 88,567 votes. PML-N candidate Sheikh Mohammad Tariq Rasheed stood runner-up with 71,457 votes. PTI's Sahibzada Sibghatullah won NA-5, Upper Dir polls, by bagging 49,299 votes, according to unofficial and unconfirmed results from all the polling stations. PPP's Najmuddin Khan stood runner-up with 28,736 votes.

PTI's Jaffer Khan Leghari won the polls in NA-193 Rajanpur-1 with 87,915 votes, unofficial results from all the polling stations suggested. Leghari was followed by PML-N's Sardar Sher Ali Khan Gurchani, who could secure 55,409 votes.

PTI's Shah Mehmood Qureshi won polls in NA-156, Multan-3 by securing 93,500 votes. PML-N's Amir Saeed Ansari stood runner-up with 74,624 votes to his credit.

Imran Khan leads the polls in NA-131, Lahore, with 8,033 votes. Khan is trailed by PML-N heavyweight Khawaja Saad Rafique, who has so far attained 7,644 votes.

Over 200 candidates were allotted ‘Jeep’ as election symbol, mainly in Punjab and Balochistan, both for the National Assembly and provincial assemblies seats.

Some newly-formed religious parties, including Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek and Rah-e-Haq Party also fielded over 500 candidates, but so far failed to make any electoral impact.

Polling started at 8:00am and continued till 6:00pm without break, as the Election Commission of Pakistan rejected pleas by the PML-N.

As many as 95 political parties had fielded 11,676 candidates for 270 seats of the National Assembly and 570 seats of four provincial assemblies.