Polling closed at its designated time of 5pm on Thursday in the much anticipated by-election for NA-149 (Multan), which fell vacant after Javed Hashmi’s resignation from the seat on August 18.
Hashmi had resigned from the seat as a Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) member and is trying his luck again as an independent candidate.
Multan : Voting for by-election in NA-149… by dawn-news
Apart from Hashmi, the other two main candidates for the by-polls are Amir Dogar and Javed Siddiqui.
Although standing as an independent candidate, Hashmi enjoys support from the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N). He is also the biggest stakeholder in the poll with the result expected to have a definitive impact on his political future. Being elected from the constituency twice, Hashmi also banks on his personal contacts and the PML-N vote bank.
The other key candidate for the seat — Amir Dogar — enjoys active backing from supporters of PTI, PTI Vice-Chairman Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi and PTI MPAs from the area Zaheeruddin Alizai and Javed Akhtar Ansari.
Dogar also has close contacts with the constituents, and has obliged many during the Pakistan Peoples Party’s tenure when his father, Salahuddin Dogar, was a senator and a close aide of former president Zardari and then prime minister Gilani.
Javed Siddiqui, who is PPP’s candidate for the seat, enjoys the active support of former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and other mainstream leaders like Makhood Shahabuddin and senators Islamuddin Sheikh and Dr Qayyum Soomro.
Explore: It’s virtually PML-N vs PTI in Multan today
Hashmi’s resignation, although sent on August 18, became a reality days after he made explosive claims about a plan allegedly scripted by the army to overthrow the government by using violent protests as a pretext. Prior to his press conference of September 1 in which he made the above claims, he had been supporting PTI’s anti-government demonstrations in Islamabad. His remarks and allegations generated shock on part of PTI, of which he was the president at that time, and a denial from the military which rejected assertions that the army and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) were behind the political standoff.
Poll results not going in my favour, admits Hashmi
Speaking to media representatives after announcement of initial unconfirmed, unofficial results of NA-149 by-election, Javed Hashmi admitted that poll results did not appear to be going in his favour. He vowed to felicitate the subsequent winner of the by-election.
“I will accept the election results…and will congratulate the winner,” he said.
The veteran politician also thanked the ruling PML-N party for supporting him despite having not been contacted for the same. “There is no contact with N-League, but still they worked day and night for me.”
read more …
source: dawn.com
Tags: Dogar, Hashmi, NA-149 by-polls, Pakistani politics news, Political news, Politics
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.