News
Thursday, July 21, 2011
MQM clean sweeps in AJK polls on both seats in KarachiBy Asad Farooq
KARACHI: According to unofficial results, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has won both the seats: Legislative Assembly (LA) 30 Jammu One and LA 36 Valley One during the Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK) election being held in Karachi on two seats.
As many as 73 polling stations and 93 polling booths were established for LA 30, while 25 stations and 26 booths were established for LA 36. No unwanted incident was witnessed during the entire process in the metropolis of Karachi.
After withdrawal of Muslim Conference (MC)’s and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)’s candidates, the actual contest was between the candidates of MQM and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), however, several independent candidates were also appeared in the election. Candidates of MQM Tahir Khokhar from LA 30 and Saleem Butt from LA 30 won the respective seats from a large margin, as per unofficial results. It is pertinent to mention here that earlier election was postponed on both seats due to security concerns, and such situation resulted in increasing breaches between the MQM and PPP. MQM offered strong resistance of the suspension and not only announced to lodge a petition before court but also set its ways apart from the coalition government. All the federal and provincial ministers resigned and announced to join apposition on both the floors of National and provincial assemblies. As the most serious step Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad Khan, belonging to MQM, resigned from his post and left for London. The ice melted after several days when both the parties joined together, MQM resumed the governorship and PPP announced to withdraw its candidates from both the seats. Meanwhile Muslim Conference had also announced to withdraw its candidates in the favor of MQM.
However, the final results would be announced by AJ&K Election Commission, MQM candidate Saleem But from LA 36 has scored 4,633 votes and Tahir Khokhar has scored 31,414 votes.
Polling was started from 08:00am till 05:00pm without any break. Turnout of voters were witnessed very low in the morning, increased along with day. No incident was witnessed during the entire process as heavy contingent of police and rangers were deployed on the spots, however, Taher Khokhar had alleged PML-N for rigging the polling process.
The total number of registered votes for LA 30 were 68,580 and for LA 36 were 6,199 out of which 4,215 were registered in Karachi.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk