PPP faces major setback
Imran puts up highly impressive show in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Independent candidates take fourth position
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) faced a humiliating defeat along with its coalition partners such as Awami National Party (ANP) which was nearby wiped out in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa without securing even a single National Assembly seat. Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), another former coalition partner of PPP, secured only two seats - a big blow to the Chaudhrys of Gujrat, as Chaudhary Wajahat Hussain also could not make it to parliament.
Another edge for the front-runner - PML-N - is that it can easily form the next government with the help 26 independent winners of the National Assembly seats. Besides, PML-N will be in a position to get up to 30 reserved seats for both women and minorities, taking the strength to 147 but again it will need the support of 25 more to be in a position to elect its own prime minister.
However, the road ahead will not be that easy for the PML-N to make its own government unless it musters support of other political parties for the formation of a government, hence another hung parliament is in the offing with a very strong opposition. According unofficial results, the turnout remained unexpectedly high during the general elections despite Taliban threats and scattered violence across the country.
An official of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), who declined to be named, estimated that the turnout might reach as high as 60 percent - a record turnout in country's had ever witnessed after 1971. Such forecasts put turnout much higher than in previous elections - only 44 percent of voters showed up in 2008 - and the credit for the huge turnout goes to PTI chief Imran Khan, who attracted first-time voters with promises to get rid of the status quo and reviewing the foreign policy afresh.
The PML-N and PTI draw much of their support from Punjab, the province with more than 60 percent of the total population, and the election was particularly hard-fought in Lahore, the provincial capital and the country's second largest city. The PTI clean swept from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with sixteen National Assembly seat, defeating many political heavyweight of ANP such as Ghulam Ahmed Bilour of ANP and many big other names from the province like Asfandyar Wali Khan, ANP, Arbab Alamgir Khan, PPP, Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, PML-N secretary general, Amir Muqam, president PML-N KP chapter.
The PPPP also faced humiliation as former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf lost the battle to ex-district mayor Raja Javed Akhlas of PML-N in his constituency of Gujar Khan. PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif remained victorious from the two constituencies - Lahore, Sargodha-while PTI chief Imran Khan also succeeded in besting his rivals from all four constituencies in Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Lahore and Mianwali.
In NA-1 Peshawar, Imran Khan defeated former Railways Minister and ANP stalwart Haji Ghulam Ahmad Bilour in his home constituency by thumping majority, though Bilour defeated Benazir Bhutto in 1993 elections from the same constituency. The PTI also gave a humiliating defeat to PML-N in urban constituencies of Rawalpindi, considered to be the stronghold of the party. Hanif Abbasi was drubbed by none other than Imran Khan in NA-56 while Sheikh Rashid Ahmed knocked out Shakil Awan.
In the NA-48 constituency in the federal capital, it was hard to find anyone who admitted to having voted for a party other than PTI, which proved to be true as Javed Hashmi of PTI defeated Anjum Aqeel Khan of PML-N. Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi of PML-Q' won NA-105 (Gujrat-II) by securing 22,000 votes. The main contest for the seat involved 25 candidates with PPP's Ahmed Mukhtar, Pervaiz Elahi and PML-N's Chaudhry Mubashir Hussain as key contenders for the seat.
This seat has traditionally seen a tussle between the Chaudhrys with Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar pitched against one another since 1990. The district of Gujrat is also the hometown of Chaudhry Shujaat and Pervaiz Elahi. In 2002, Chaudhry Shujaat beat PPP's Mukhtar by 14,177 votes, but in 2008, Mukhtar defeated the PML-Q chief by 13,997 votes.
PPP stalwart Qamar Zaman Kaira lost from NA-106 (Gujrat-III), securing only 12,053 votes from the seat he had won in 2008. PML-N's Chaudhry Jaafar Iqbal won the seat. Main contenders for this year's contest were: Kaira, Jaafar Iqbal, PTI's Mian Afzal Hayat and independent candidate Syed Noorul Hassan.
PML-N candidate Shahid Khaqan Abbasi won from NA-50 Rawalpindi-I by claiming 80,692 votes by defeating PPP Murtaza Satti. Aside from losing the 2002 general elections, he has won every election since 1988. Manzoor Wattoo of PPP lost against Rao Muhammad Ajmal Khan of PML-N from Okara-4 NA-146. In the previous elections, Wattoo won from this constituency.