LAHORE: Barrister Moazzam Sher Kallu of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) won the by-election in the PP-84 constituency of Khushab by a wide margin, retaining the seat that had fallen vacant due to the death of his father Waris Kallu who won it four times consecutively.
Provisional results released by the Election Commission of Pakistan early Thursday morning suggested Moazzam secured 73,081 votes against 62,903 of Ali Hussain of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
Independent candidate Amjad Raza came in third with 8,340 votes, followed by Hafiz Muhammad Asghar Ali of the now-prescribed Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) who secured 5,782 votes. Ghulam Habib Ahmed of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) came in seventh with 235 votes.
The deceased MPA had retained the seat by a margin of 6,000 in the 2018 general elections while the TLP hopeful had bagged over 12,000 votes then.
The election was held across 229 polling stations and 666 polling booths — 344 for male and 322 for female voters. The number of registered voters in the constituency is 292,687, of which 155,104 are male and 137,583 female. The turnout seemed to be low due to hot weather and Ramadan.
PML-N leader Attaullah Tarar had on Wednesday alleged that bogus votes were polled at a polling station in the Government Girls High School, Jamali Balochan, the native village of PTI candidate.
Some local analysts said internal differences among the ranks of the ruling party might go against Hussain.
In a tweet, PML-N President and National Assembly (NA) Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif said the people had rejected the “flour and sugar thieves”.
“This is also an acknowledgement by the people of the service rendered by the PML-N during its tenure. And this vote is for the development of Pakistan under the leadership of Nawaz Sharif,” he declared.
He added that if the PML-N got the opportunity again then it would “serve Pakistan with more zeal than before”.
