Pakistan Punjab by-polls: Imran Khan’s PTI leading in 17 out of 20 seats

All of the major local media outlets are reporting that Imran Khan, the nation’s former prime minister, is leading the PTI in 17 of the 20 provincial seats as the vote counting for Pakistan’s Punjab by-elections continues. According to these reports, the powerful coalition of prominent figures, including former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, current Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Vice-President of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Maryam Nawaz, Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, and leader of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), Maulana Fazlur Rehman, is on the verge of suffering a significant defeat in the province. PLM-N isleading in only 2 seats, while an Independent is ahead on1 seat.

Up until April, when then-Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar resigned following the federal parliament’s vote of no-confidence in Khan, Punjab was governed by the PTI party. A faction of the party’s state lawmakers voted in favour of the PML candidacy,which led to the PTI’s nomineefor the position being defeated. Khan then successfully petitioned the Pakistani Election Commission to dismiss the state assembly legislators for improperly voting against the party’s request, creating vacancies for 20 seats. Sharif’s party now has 165 seats, while PTI holds 163, thus it will be a close contest. Sharif and coalition members are in charge of the assembly.

The voting started at 8 am and went until 5 pm, although Dunya News claimed that voting was suspended in some districts because of fighting. Following the “de-seating” of 25 PTI dissident MPs by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on May 23 for casting a ballot against PML-Hamza N’s Shahbaz in the Punjab chief minister election, the 20 seats became vacant. Around4.57 million registered voters were able to participate in the by-elections and cast ballots. In total, 3140 polling places had been set up across the 20 seats, including 731 male, 700 female, and 1700 combination polling places. There are currently 20 open seats in the Punjab Assembly, which has a total membership of 371, increasing the total number of MPAs there to 351.

(with inputs from agencies)