RAWALPINDI: Voting for for the 19 seats of the Rawalpindi and Chaklala cantonment boards was held peacefully but the turnout remained low.

There was a minor quarrel between the workers of the PTI and the PML-N in Ward 1, comprising Westridge, Allahabad and adjoining areas. A citizen raised an objection that the PML-N’s symbol of tiger was not printed in the ballot paper and there was the symbol of lock in its place.

After this, the supporters of the two parties came face to face. However, cantonment authorities and the presiding officer showed the PML-N leaders that the symbol of tiger was printed on the ballot papers.

According to sources, PML-N remained divided in the ward. Its former cantonment board member Malik Usman was contesting the election as an independent candidate with the election symbol of a lock which created the misunderstanding among his supporters. By and large, people preferred remaining busy in their routine work and avoided going to the polling stations. However, in thickly populated areas like Tench Bhatta, Jhanda Chichi, Burf Khana Chowk, Misrial Road, Naseerabad and Chur Chowk, election-related activities were witnessed.

PTI fails to retain seats in Taxila, Wah

At noon, the turnout in most polling stations was low. However, by the afternoon, the activity picked momentum and remained brisk until the end of the polling.

Talking to Dawn, most of the presiding officers said the turnout was very low in the morning but the process was held in a peaceful manner.

Mohammad Hussain, a polling official, said polling began at 8am but voters started arriving at 9pm. He said he had performed duty in the last general elections but the arrangements were better now.

Mahreen Ahmed, a party activist at Chaklala Scheme-III, said the turnout was low in the morning but increased in the afternoon. She said the voters knew better how to cast their votes and they cast it without any help.

Meanwhile, polling agents present at these stations complained that they were not allowed to take mobile phones inside the premises. However, a cantonment official told Dawn that mobile phones were given only to presiding officers to use in case of an emergency.

At a women polling station at Federal Government Quaid-i-Azam Public School, Chaklala Scheme-III, only 200 women had cast their votes till 2:15pm and the total registered voters in this polling station were 1,700. At the same venue at the men’s polling station, 300 people voted till 2pm and the total number of voters was 2,000.

At the women polling station at Allahabad, total 400 votes were polled till 1pm out of the total 1,700. At the men’s polling station, 450 votes were cast and the total number of votes there was 2,100.

At Pirwadhai Mor near Naseerabad, total votes at the polling station for men was 1,000 and 340 of them were polled till 1pm. At the women polling station, 102 of the 700 voters used their right to franchise. The women polling station at Beacon House School, Peshawar Road, recorded 150 votes out of 1,000 registered votes.

PTI Punjab North General Secretary Arif Abbasi told Dawn that the turnout was low due to lack of interest among the people. “The candidates of the ruling party tried to mobilise the voters but due to Covid-19 mostly people avoided visiting polling stations,” he said.

PPP City office-bearer Nasir Mir said a low turnout was witnessed in most areas. He said people avoided participating in the election as they did not expect anything good from both the ruling party and the PML-N.

However, PML-N former MNA Malik Shakil Awan said the low turnout was witnessed in posh localities while people in low income group areas cast their votes to elect their representatives to resolve their issues.

PTI fails to retain seats, loses to PML-N

According to unofficial results, the PTI failed to retain most of the seats which it had won in the previous elections as the PML-N returned from Taxila and Wah.

In Taxila, the PML-N clinched three of the five seats. In the previous elections it had failed to win even a single seat.

In Ward 1, PML-N candidate Aabid Hussain and in Ward 2 Ghulam Dastagir Butt have won. In Ward 3, Sajid Khan of PTI beat PML-N’s Malik Shafeeq while in Ward 4 PTI candidate Raza Shah, who was vice president in the previous setup, lost to PML-N N candidate Saif Ali Kazmi. In Ward 5, PTI candidate Saad Khan won by beating PML-N’s Zarrar Awan.

In Wah Cantonment, the PTI also failed to retain its supremacy as the PML-N clinched eight out of the 10 seats.

In Ward 1, Amir Sultan of PM-N defeated Malik Nusrat of PTI, in Ward 2, Raja Ayub of PML-N retained his seat, in Ward 3, PML-N candidate Malik Arshad Mehmood beat PTI candidate Malik Asif and in Ward 4, Malik Arif Mehmood of PML-N won. In Ward 5, Raja Amir Saeed of the PML-N beat Azhar Nawaz of PTI. In Ward 6, PTI’s Sajjad Butt won while in Ward 7 the PML-N’s Abdul Rehman retained his seat.

In Ward 8, PTI candidate Malik Fahad Masood retained his seat. In Ward 9, Farrukh Saleeem and in Ward 10 Chaudhry Ahsan of the PML-N were the winners.

In Attock, all the three candidates backed by PTI MNA retired Major Tahir Sadiq have won the seats.

Jhelum

The PTI candidates won in the two wards of Jhelum. Six candidates fielded by the PTI, PML-N and PML-Q contested polls.

PTI’s retired Major Salahuddin secured 122 votes and won the election in Ward No 1 of Jhelum Cantt while Usman Mehmood of the PML-N bagged 94 votes. The PML-Q could secure 64 votes.

In Ward No 2, PTI candidate Mohammad Ahmed Sheikh won by scoring 488 votes against 405 votes of PML-N’s Bilal Janjua.

In Ward 1 of Mangla Cantt, Tariq Khan of the PML-N won with 201 votes against Munir Ahmed of the PTI who obtained 82 votes.

In Ward No 2, independent candidate Shakeel Ahmed bagged 561 votes and defeated Mohammad Hussain of the PML-N (529 votes).

Meanwhile, a PTI leader criticised the PML-Q for contesting the cantonment board elections against the ruling party despite being a government ally.

Talking to reporters outside a polling station in Jhelum, ChaudhryFaraz Hussain, younger brother of federal information minister Chaudhary Fawad Hussain, said PML-Q had no political status anywhere in Pakistan.

He said the results would reveal the actual political potential of the PML-Q.

Published in Dawn, September 13th, 2021