PML-N retains stronghold of NA-133

Party clinches seat with comfortable margin, though PPP makes gains in vote bank

  • PML-N bags 46,811 votes as opposed to PPP’s 32,313
  • PPP fought with support of Pakistan Awami Tehreek and Majlis-e-Wahdat-e-Muslimeen
  • Absence of PTI’s candidate due to rejection of nomination papers dulls down voting
  • Shehbaz and Hamza believe people looking to party as having solutions to prevailing issues.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has emerged victorious in the by-elections in Lahore’s NA-133 with party’s candidate Shiasta Pervaiz Malik defeating the Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) Chaudhry Aslam Gill with a comfortable margin of over 14,000 votes.

PML-N’s Shiasta Pervaiz Malik bagged 46,811 votes while PPP’s Chaudhry Aslam Gill could secure 32,313 votes. The voters’ turnout remained at 18.5 percent only.

Gill, who was earlier considered an easy target, did manage to increase the vote bank of his party. The PPP had made serious efforts this time and remained successful in giving a tough time to PML-N, that has had a stronghold in the city for over two decades.

The party stood at the third position in Lahore in the 2013 elections and at the fourth position in the 2018 elections.

It is pertinent to mention that PPP had the support of Pakistan Awami Tehreek of Dr. Tahir-ul Qadri and Majlis-e-Wahdat-e-Muslimeen. Minhaj-ul Quran and PAT chief Dr. Tahirul Qadri have strong political support in the area, with the former having been an MNA from this constituency in 2002.

The last time the PPP gave a tough time to PML-N was in 2008 when the party’s candidate Samina Khalid Ghurki clinched her seat. Since then, the party never won any election from Lahore while its candidate could only manage a few thousand votes in NA-133, both in 2013 and 2018.

Napoleon Qayyum, a minority leader from PPP, told Minute Mirror that almost 70,000 Christian voters lived in NA-133 and his party really worked hard to woo them.

The areas of Christian community include Bahar Colony, Maryam Colony, Awami Colony and some Katchi Abadis, where a large number of jiyalas are living for years.

“I spent my day at Awami Colony in UC-228 while I also visited UC-226. It is really good for the PPP that Christian voters are coming back to its fold,” Napoleon said.

The result would have been different if our party did some more work in the constituency, he added.

The turnout was quite low owing due to various reasons with the voters seeming disinterested in the polling process. There were around 1,400 voters in the combined polling station of Govt Practicing High School Township, but less than 200 had cast their votes by 3:30 PM when visited by Minute Mirror.

One of the reasons of low turnout was the absence of a candidate from PTI, with Jamshed Cheema failing to become part of the polling race due to a ‘technical fault’ in his nomination papers.

It was for the very first time in the tenure of PTI, that only parties of the opposition were contesting a by-election.

Muhammad Usman, a young voter of PML-N, who spent the whole day at a polling station in UC-240 near Bagrian, told Minute Mirror that it was one of the toughest contests between the PML-N and PPP.

“The whole day was full of festivities and we were not expecting such large numbers of PPP voters from here,” he said.

He believed that the PPP was successful in mobilizing its workers through monetary means.

He further claimed that the PPP had given Rs2000 to every voter in the constituency to buy their vote.

The seat fell vacant after the death of PML-N stalwart and party’s Lahore Chapter President Malik Pervaiz. He clinched the seat in 2018 by grabbing 89,678 votes while his main rival, Ijaz Chaudhry of PTI, received 77,231 votes. The candidate of PPP, Chaudhry Aslam Gill, had 5,585 votes to his name after TLP with the third-most votes at 13,235.

There were 440,485 registered voters in the constituency, out of which 233,558 were men and 206,927 were women voters. The total number of polling stations in the constituency were 254.

As many as 22 Union Councils fall in NA-133, with the constituency including areas like Kot Lakhpat, Green Town, Township, Bagrian, Wafaqi Colony, Maryam Colony, Bahar Colony and some parts of Faisal Town.

The main leadership of both the contesting parties remained away from the election campaign as neither Bilawal Bhutto nor Maryam Nawaz or Hamza Shehbaz took an active part in the campaign.

Seemingly, both parties avoided levelling allegations against each other during the election campaign as both are part of the opposition and the anti-government movement launched by the opposition.

The main focus of both the parties remained door-to-door campaigns and corner meetings.

PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif and Leader of the Opposition in Punjab Assembly Hamza Shehbaz congratulated the workers over the victory of the party’s candidate.

They stated that the victory showed people were once again looking towards the PML-N as a party that has the solution to the issues being faced by the public.