Muzaffarabad/Lahore: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) candidate Sardar Ziaul Qamar was declared the winner in the by-election of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) KL-15 on Thursday, according to unofficial results. With 189 polling stations counted, Zia is leading with 25,755 votes, edging out PMLN’s Mushtaq Minhas. Minhas has received 20,485 votes so far. The seat fell vacant after the Azad Jammu and Kashmir High Court disqualified former Azad Jammu and Kashmir Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas, who had won the 2018 elections by 20,010 votes. Eighteen candidates are contesting the election, including PTI’s Col (retd) Zameer and others.
The number of registered voters is 101,145 out of which the number of male voters is 53,107 and the number of female voters is 48,038. PPP Co-Chairman and former President Asif Ali Zardari congratulated PPP candidate Zia Qamar for defeating former minister and PMLN candidate Mushtaq Minhas in LA 15 Bagh by-election of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Is. He thanked the people of Azad Jammu and Kashmir for showing confidence in Pakistan People’s Party. The seat fell vacant after the Azad Jammu and Kashmir High Court disqualified former Prime Minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Sardar Tanveer Ilyas. Eighteen candidates including PTI’s Colonel (Rtd) Zameer were contesting. Meanwhile, PMLN lawmaker Hina Pervaiz Butt accused the PPP of rigging the by-election to the seat that was contested in April after the High Court disqualified former Azad Jammu and Kashmir Prime Minister Tanveer Ilyas. It was empty. Soon after polling ended, he tweeted along with a video, “PPP people caught red-handed rigging Kashmir.”
In the video, a man is heard saying he was at a polling station where another person, whom he did not identify, stamped ballot papers to rig the election. “The entire polling station has been occupied… Zia Qamar’s (PPP candidate) people abused the first presiding officer and occupied the polling station… Rangers are outside but not doing anything and Zia Qamar is here. are sitting”. Sharing another video on Twitter – showing a man counting ballot papers which he said were “evidence” – Butt said, “PPP has started stamping [ballot papers] in Kashmir as well. done. Rigging is not acceptable.” Also, another PMLN leader, Attaullah Tarar, claimed that his party’s candidate had a “clear lead” in the by-election. News of rigging are coming but InshAllah PML-N will win. It is not possible to complete 80-90% polling in some stations and 30-39% in others,” he tweeted.
On the other hand, PPP’s Faisal Karim Kundi congratulated his party on Twitter and said that “Unofficially, PPP’s Zia-ul-Qamar Bagh is winning by a large margin in the Kashmir by-election.” The official result of the by-election in Bagh II constituency of Azad Jammu and Kashmir is yet to be declared. The PPP and the PML-N, which are allied at the Centre, are contesting the seat that fell vacant after Ilyas was disqualified on blasphemy charges. Ziaul Qamar is contesting the election on the ticket of People’s Party, PMLN has fielded former journalist Mushtaq Minhas, who joined the Nawaz Sharif-led party in 2016.
