As the vote counting for Pakistan’s Punjab bypolls is on, all major local media channels are reporting that the country’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s PTI is leading in 17 seats of the 20 provincial seats.
As per these reports, the massive alliance of big leaders like Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, PM Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice-President Maryam Nawaz, Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman is nearing a big defeat in the province. There are only 2 seats where PLM-N is leading and 1 seat for Independent.
Punjab was under the control of the PTI party until April when then-Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar resigned after the federal parliament took up a no-confidence against Khan. The PTI’s subsequent nominee for the position was defeated as a faction among the party’s state lawmakers voted for the PML-N’s candidate instead.
Khan then successfully petitioned the Election Commission of Pakistan to remove the state assembly lawmakers for illegally voting against the party’s directive, leaving 20 seats vacant. It will be a close race as Sharif’s party currently holds 165 seats while PTI controls 163. Sharif controls the assembly with coalition members.
The polling began at 8 am and continued till 5 pm but in several districts polling was stopped due to clashes, reported Dunya News.
20 seats fell vacant after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) “de-seated” 25 PTI dissident lawmakers on May 23 for voting against PML-N’s Hamza Shahbaz in the Punjab chief minister’s election.
By-elections were held in 20 constituencies of Punjab Assembly including polling stations PP-7 Rawalpindi, PP-83 Khushab, PP-90 Bhakkar, PP-97 Faisalabad; PP-125, PP-127 Jhang, PP-140 Sheikhupura,PP-158, 167,168,170 Lahore;PP-167, Lahore, PP-202 Sahiwa,; PP-217 Multan, PP-224 Lodhran, PP-228 Lodhran, PP-237 Bahawalnagar, PP-272,273 Muzaffargarh,PP-282 Layyah and PP-288 Dera Ghazi Khan.
A total of 4.57 million registered voters, including 2.46 million women, were eligible to cast ballot in the by-polls. As many as 3140 polling stations, including 731 male, 700 female and 1700 combined polling stations had been established across the 20 constituencies.
A total of 9,562 polling booths had been set up for the by-polls. The ECP had declared 1204 polling stations sensitive and 696 highly sensitive.
Polling stations from Lahore and Multan had also been declared sensitive. Provincial Election Commissioner Saeed Gul had said that the Election Commission was completely neutral and there was no truth in the allegations, they were working according to the Constitution and the law.
The Punjab Assembly has a total of 371 members, of which 20 seats are vacant at the moment, bringing the total number of MPAs in the Punjab Assembly down to 351.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Shahbaz Gill was arrested from Muzaffargarh on Monday for allegedly carrying and displaying weapons on his visit to polling stations during the Punjab by-elections.
The former federal minister was arrested as he was caught brandishing weapons on his visit to polling stations PP-272 and PP-73.
Right after the news of Gill’s arrest surfaced, PTI leaders took to Twitter to criticize the move and branded it an attempt to “rig the elections”.
PTI chief Imran Khan said, “These fascist tactics will not work and our people will not be deterred from exercising their right to vote.” In another tweet later, he demanded the courts to “open now” and act against the brazen violations of the Supreme Court’s orders and electoral rules.
As per the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), “Carriage and display of all kinds of lethal weapons and firearms shall not be allowed in public meetings and processions and official regulations in respect thereof shall be strictly observed. Aerial firing, use of crackers and other explosives at public meetings shall not be allowed.”
This is a part of ECP’s election code of conduct for political parties and candidates, reported Dawn.
While speaking with media, the district police officer of Muzaffargarh said that Gill was taken into custody from a factory owned by PTI candidate Muazzam Ali along with his guards. They have been taken to an undisclosed location, he said.
No first information report (FIR) has been registered so far. As per the visuals circulated on television, Gill can be seen with guards clad in Frontier Corps uniform.
It is interesting to note that even before his arrest, Gill had tweeted that he was ready to get arrested.
“Before you reach anyone else, I am presenting myself for arrest,” he tweeted, claiming he was “trapped in a factory”. “Imran Khan’s soldier is not afraid of such tactics. We did not come to do terrorism.”
Earlier, in another similar instance, in a video posted on his YouTube channel, Gill alleged that polling agents in Muzaffargarh’s PP-272 had not been allowed to enter the polling stations.
“We reached out to the ECP but they refuted the complaints. Now, they have sent police to take my guards. What is their purpose? They want to arrest me,” he said.
“So, I will do you a favour and present myself for arrest,” the PTI leader said. “As long as I am standing here, I won’t let you arrest anyone.”