MULTAN: The ruling PTI could not win a single seat in Multan in Cantonment Board polls on Sunday while the PML-N seems to be be losing ground in its stronghold Gujranwala division.

According to the unofficial results of the 10 wards, the PML-N won one seat while independent candidates won the remaining seats. The PTI fielded its candidates in five of the wards and supported the PML-Q aspirant at one place. Of the five candidates the PML-N fielded, Akhtar Rasool Faridi won the election in Ward No 3.

The independent winners are: Rana Muhammad Ashraf, Ghulam Jilani, Sheikh Waheed Qureshi, Malik Bilal Khani, Sana Akbar, Shamshad Ali Ansari, Yaqoob Nasir, retired Maj Sadiq Zaeem and Khurshid Khan.

The polling process was stopped at a women’s polling booth of Ward No 4 after a clash between the supporters of the two candidates.

Violence at many places briefly disrupted the polling process

The police deployed at the polling station controlled the situation after which the polling was resumed.

Sources said PTI’s former south Punjab president Noor Khan Bhabha distributed party tickets by ignoring the MNA concerned. Similarly, the PML-N tickets were distributed by party’s NA-154 ticket-holder Salman Qureshi over which the other local leaders were unhappy. The PTI MNA and local leaders of the PML-N fielded their candidates as independents who eventually won, sources said.

GUJRAT: Polling for the election of three Cantonment boards of Gujranwala region (Gujranwala, Sialkot and Kharian) and two of Jhelum district (Jhelum and Mangla) largely remained peaceful. Two groups of the PTI supporters clashed with each other at party’s polling camp outside a polling station in Ward No 2 of Sialkot. Some media personnel also were manhandled by these groups for covering the clash.

According to the unofficial results, the PTI candidates clinched most seats in Gujranwala and Jhelum regions and the PML-N was at the second position. The PTI bagged six seats in Gujranwala Cantonment Board’s 10 seats, followed by two seats each by the PML-N and independents. In Sialkot, the PML-N clinched three seats and the PTI two.

The ruling party grabbed two seats each in Kharian and Jhelum Cantonments and in Mangla Cantonment, the PML-N and an independent candidate bagged one seat each.

The PTI, the PML-N, the PML-Q and the JI fielded their candidates in both wards of Kharian Cantt whereas the PPP and TLP fielded their one candidate in Ward Nos 1 and 2 respectively.

Gujrat District Police Officer Umar Salamat, Deputy Commissioner Mehtab Waseem and Election Monitoring Officer Amir Shahzad inspected the polling process in Kharian.

Fahim Ali, chief executive officer of Kharian Cantonment, told Dawn that wheelchairs had been provided at all the polling stations for the use of senior citizens or physically challenged voters. He said closed-circuit television cameras (CCTVs) had been installed even inside the polling stations. Gujranwala region known as a bastion of the PML-N in central Punjab seems to be slipping away from the hands of the party as far as the results of elections in the past few months are concerned. The PML-N had earlier faced defeat on the four seats of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly in Gujranwala division as well as the bypoll on a Punjab Assembly seat of Sialkot.

The PML-N has showed a dismal performance in Kharian board which has been an important urban part of NA-71, the constituency of party’s Gujranwala region president MNA Abid Raza Kotla who had earlier faced defeat at the polling stations for AJ&K elections in July 25.

OKARA: Law enforcers arrested four people with weapons in parts of the military farms villages during the elections.

Ahmad Ramzan Niazi was held with a kalashnikov, a pistol and bullets at 25/4L village, Haroon with a kalashinkov, Aslam with a semi-automatic rifle and 60 bullets and Muhammad Ramiz with kalashnikov. The Cantt police on the report of SI Muhammad Munir, ASIs Sher Muhammad, Muhammad Sharif and Abdul Majid registered cases.

According to the unofficial results, PTI ticket-holder Chaudhry Shahzad Shafi won the seat in ward 1, independent candidate Umair Khadim won in ward 2, Nadeem Anwar Bhatti (independent) won in ward 3, Raja Mubasshar Hussain Janjua (independent) won in ward 4 and Iqbal Hussain Shah (independent) won in ward 5.

BAHAWALPUR: The PML-N won three seats and the PTI two in the five wards in Bahawalpur, say unofficial results.

The PML-Q led by federal minister Tariq Bashir Cheema who had fielded candidates could not win a single seat in the Cantonment Board election.

In the recount of votes in ward 4, PML-N’s Muhammad Ali was declared winner against PTI’s Andul Hameed Baloch who was ahead in the first counting. Other winners are: PTI’s Rehan Bin Javed (ward 1), PML-N’s Abdul Malik (ward 2), PTI’s Muhammad Akhtar Baloch (ward 3) and PML-N’s Abdul Khaliq (ward 5).

The polling at the 18 stations in the five wards remained peaceful amid security measures by police and Rangers.

SARGODHA: Five independent candidates won the elections in Sargodha. The PTI bagged three seats and the PML-N two. Three of the independent candidates were supported by the ruling party.

The winners are: PTI’s Muhammad Awais Zahoor (ward 1), independent candidate Muhammad Shahzad Anwar (ward 2), PML-N’s Bilal Khalid Warraich (ward 3), independent Nasir Mehmood Kharal (ward 4), independent Umar Farooq (ward 5), independent Tauqir Ashraf Gujjar (ward 6), PML-N’s Muhammad Zafar Khan (ward 7), independent Khan Mehmood Ahmad Virk (ward 8), PTI’s Muhammad Asif (ward 9) and PTI’s Muhammad Arshad (ward 10).

TOBA TEK SINGH: Independent candidates Munir Ahmad Sindhila and Zahid Mustafa won in the two wards.

The winning candidates led rallies on Shorkot Cantonment roads after the results were announced. Earlier in the day, they brought the voters to the polling stations by vehicles adorned with posters.

Published in Dawn, September 13th, 2021