The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Sunday emerged victorious in the by-elections for Mathra tehsil, which had fallen vacant after the death of tehsil chairman Faridullah of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazl).
The victory has been hailed by the PTI as “proof” of its enduring popularity despite the arrest of party chief Imran Khan in the Toshakhana case, which occurred on Saturday after he was found guilty of “corrupt practices.”
According to the provisional results from all 155 polling stations in Mathra, 55,607 people cast their votes in the elections, a turnout of 26 percent. The results show PTI’s Inamullah securing 20,333 votes; JUIF’s Rafiullah 13,564 votes; JI’s Iftikhar Ahmed 9,546 votes; ANP’s Aziz Ghaffar 2,721 votes; PPP’s Ali Abbas 5,377; and PMLN’s Fazlullah 3,351 votes.
A second by-election in the Havelian tehsil council saw independent candidate Uzair Sher Khan winning with 21,464 votes from 134 polling stations. The PTI’s Iftikhar Khan came in second with 18,521 votes, while Talha Asif of the PMLN received 14,892 votes.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had earlier announced it had established 155 polling stations with 496 polling booths for 218,630 voters in Mathra, while 134 polling stations with 392 polling booths had been set up for 165,800 voters in Havelian.
Hailing the victory of the “ideology” PTI leader Asad Umar wrote on Twitter: “The best thing about the success in yesterday’s Mathra tehsil election is that Tehreek-e-Insaf’s candidate Inam is a general worker of the party and trained by ISF [Insaf Students Federation].”