PTI beats JUI-F in Peshawar LG by-polls

• Inam Ullah of PTI secured 20,333 votes.
• JUI-F's Rafiullah remained with 13,564 votes.
• 55,607 people cast their vote during by-polls.

PESHAWAR: After the arrest of its chairman Imran Khan last week, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has clinched victory in the Peshawar local government by-election winning the slots for chairman tehsil council Mathra, Havelian and Abbottabad.

According to the provisional consolidated result from all the 155 polling stations in Mathra, Inam Ullah of PTI secured 20,333 votes, The News reported. This seat fell vacant after the death of tehsil chairman Farid Ullah of JUI-F.

Meanwhile, the Maulana Fazl ur Rehman-led Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), however, failed in the said constituencies. Its candidate, Rafiullah, could not win the chairmanship of the tehsil council Mathra and remained second by securing 13,564 votes.

Among the other candidates, Iftikhar Ahmed of the Jamat-e-Islami I for 9,546 votes, Aziz Ghaffar of ANP got 2,721 votes, Ali Abbas of PPP got 5,377 votes and Fazlullah of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) got 3,351 votes.

As many as 55,607 people cast their vote while the turnout remained at 26%.

According to reports, the result of the Havelian tehsil council was delayed after a scuffle. But later on, according to the results of 134 polling stations in Havelian, independent candidate Uzair Sher Khan won the polls after bagging 21,464 votes. At the same time, Iftikhar Khan of PTI got 18,521 votes and Talha Asif of PML-N received 14,892 votes.

Extraordinary security measures were taken for by-polls in two tehsil councils. Senior police officials said heavy contingents of police were deployed at polling stations and in the two constituencies to ensure peaceful polling. The City Police Chief Ashfaq Anwar and other officials visited various polling stations to inspect the security arrangements for the polls.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had set up 155 polling stations with 496 polling booths for 218,630 voters in Mathra. As many as 84 of these polling stations were declared most sensitive and 57 were declared sensitive.

Another 134 polling stations with 392 polling booths were set up for 165,800 voters in tehsil council Havelian. Of these 40 polling stations were declared most sensitive and 25 were declared sensitive. The main contenders in Havelian included independent Uzair Sher Khan, Iftikhar Khan of PTI and Talha Asif of PML-N.

The ECP had banned any rally or inauguration of a project by a public office holder in an area where polls are being held, terming it a violation of the code of conduct.

PTI leader Asad Umar, too, celebrated the success of his party’s win in the by-polls.

Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, he wrote: “The best thing about the success in yesterday's Mathra tehsil election is that Tehreek-e-Insaaf's candidate Inam is a general worker of the party and trained by [Insaf Students Federation] ISF. The ideology succeeded against those who spend crores.”