The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) has won the highest number of mayor/chairman seats in the elections for 39 tehsils of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa held on Sunday.
According to the provisional results of 39 of the 63 tehsils announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan on Monday, the JUI-F not only won 15 seats of mayor/chairman but also gave tough fight in many other tehsils where its candidates stood runners-up.
In the provincial capital Peshawar, the JUI-F stunned its rival Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and has a definitive lead in the contest for the mayor of Peshawar city. JUI-F candidate Haji Zubair Ali secured 62,388 votes against 50,659 votes secured by PTI’s Rizwan Bangash. Sher Rehman of ANP got 49,596, Arbab Zarak Khan of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) bagged 45,958 and Behrullah of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) bagged 18,367 votes in the contest for the Peshawar’s mayor slot.
The JUI-F won majority seats followed by the Awami National Party (ANP) in the city, tehsil councils (TCs) and village councils (VCs).
The JUI-F got five of the top slots in Peshawar while ANP and PTI won one each, according to the provisional results. Four main political parties had a tough clash for the top slot of the mayor of the metropolitan city and six tehsils in Peshawar.
Vote count for the city council took more than 24 hours and continued till Monday evening.
Polling at six polling stations in the Peshawar City Council was postponed due to a law-and-order situation that also stopped the official announcement of the result in this constituency. In Mathra tehsil, Faridullah of JUI-F was elected chairman with 22,000 votes followed by 15,844 votes of JI’s Iftikhar Ahmad.
Another JUI-F candidate Tila Mohammad got 13,454 in Tehsil Badaber while Ghazanfar Ai of ANP bagged 12,562 votes. Kalimullah of JUI-F got 21,678 votes in Tehsil Council Shah Alam. He was followed by Waqas Ahmad of PTI with 11,250 votes.
In Pishtakhara tehsil of Peshawar, Mohammad Haroon of JUI-F got 11,295 votes while Zahir Khan of PML-N received 10,158 votes.
In Chamkani tehsil, Arbab Umar of ANP got 24,415 votes followed by 20,398 votes of Nabi Gul of PTI.
PTI’s Hafiz-ur-Rehman won in Hassankhel. He was followed by JUIF’s Nazar Baz. A number of PTI MNAs, MPAs and other leaders were said to be supporting rival candidates against the party contenders in the LG polls.
Some of them were issued show-cause notices but they continued to oppose their own party contenders. The PTI also lost in most of the VCs and NCs in Peshawar and other districts.
Abdul Rauf of JUI-F won the tehsil council Charsadda slot by securing 78,212 votes followed by Taimur Khattak of ANP with 45,722 votes. Independent Fayaz Ali won the slot for chairman of the tehsil council of Tangi bagging 14,189 votes followed by another independent Yahya Jan who got 13,705 votes.
In Shabqadar, Charsadda, Hamza Asif of JUI-F got 33,244 votes against Shahidullah of PTI who received 14,616 votes.
JUI-F’s Sher Zaman won the slot of chairman of the tehsil council Kohat with 34,434 votes followed by 25,793 of an independent, Shafiullah Jan.
In the Lachi tehsil of Kohat, independent Mohammad Ihsan won the seat with 8,704 votes. He was followed by 7,907 votes of PTI’s Imtiaz Qureshi.
A candidate of the PTI Sher Alam Khan got 11,505 votes in Gadezai tehsil in Buner. He was followed by 7,897 of ANP’s Shah Jahan.
In Chagharzai tehsil in Buner, Sharif Khan of PTI got 8,056 votes and independent Iqbal Khan bagged 4,888 votes.
In Wazir tehsil of Bannu, Masto Khan of JUI-F was elected chairman by bagging 2,928 votes. He was followed by 2,648 of an independent, Irfanullah.
In the Kulachi tehsil of Dera Ismail Khan, Araiz Khan Gandapur Of PTI got 1,0236 votes against 7562 of PPP’s Faridoon Khan.
Ihsanullah Khan of JI was elected chairman of the Daraban tehsil of Dera Ismail Khan with 16,420 votes. He was followed by 9,486 of PTI’s Babar Badshah.
Independent Fakhrullah Khan was elected chairman Paroa tehsil in DIK after securing 23346 votes while Imtiaz Khan of JUI-F got 21817 votes.
In Paharpur tehsil of DI Khan, Altaf Hussain of PPP got 37,302 votes and was followed by independent Jahanzeb Khan who bagged 34,730.
In the Mardan district, Himayatullah Mayar of the Awami National Party won the slot of the mayor city council by securing 56,458 votes. He was followed by 49,938 of Amanat Shah of JUI-F.
In the Katlang tehsil, Mardan, JUI-F’s Hamdullah was elected chairman by bagging 30,474 votes. He was followed by 18,186 of ANP’s Fazal Rehman.
JUI-F candidate Mohammad Saeed won chairman tehsil council Takhtbhai with 45,881 votes and he was followed by Mazhar Ali of PML-N.
In Rustam Mardan, Mubarak Ahmad Durrani of JUI-F got 16,887 votes while Muzaffar Shah of PTI bagged 12,482.
In Nowshera, Ishaq Khattak of PTI got 49,084 votes while Hakim Ali of JUI-F bagged 40,972 votes.
Ghayur Khan of ANP got 27,530 in Tehsil Pabbi in Nowshera followed by 27,268 of Ishfaq Ahmad of the PTI.
SHBLI FARAZ ADMITS DEFEAT: Federal Minister for Science and Technology Senator Syed Shibli Faraz said that performance of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in KP local bodies’ election is not that bad.
The federal minister while citing current wave of inflation as one of the reasons for defeat, said that the other reason of loss was that PTI candidates contested against each other.
Talking to media in Peshawar, the federal minister expressed pleasure over what he referred as peaceful conduct of polling to elect members of new local government in the province.
Shibli said that the PTI has learnt a lot from the local bodies’ elections and that the party will prepare well for next election.
Criticising other contesting parties in polls, he said that opposition has no alternative future plan.
Shibli deplored violent clashes at polling stations resulting in loss of fives lives in different KP cities.
On the other hand, provincial minister Shaukat Ali Yousafzai has also regarded price hike as a major reason for poor performance of the party in the election.
While speaking to media, Yousafzai vowed to lower inflation in country. Prime Minister has realisation about issue of price hike, asserted the provincial minister.
Shaukat Yousafzai termed the conduct of polling an achievement of PTI government saying grassroot level elections are unprecedented in history of Pakistan which have been fully participated by people of province.
Similar views were expressed by two provincial ministers Atif Khan and Shahram Tarakai. The latter added that party’s planning at lower political level also played a part.
