PTI wins three reserved seats for women in AJK

MUZAFFARABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has secured three seats reserved for women in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly.

All five candidates were elected unopposed while the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) secured one seat each.

The winning candidates included Kausar Taqdees Gilani, Begum Imtiaz Naseem, and Sabiha Khatoon of the PTI, Nabeela Ayub Advocate of the PPP, and Nisaran Abbasi of the PML-N.

A total of 10 candidates had submitted their nomination papers for the reserved seats, however, five of them withdrew their names later.

The election of three reserved seats, one each of Ulema and Mushaikh, one seat of overseas Kashmiri, and one reserved seat of technocrat will be held on Monday in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Assembly.

According to unofficial results, the PTI bagged a victory on 26 seats to secure a simple majority and will form the government in the region.

The PPP remained the biggest opposition group after it secured 11 seats, followed by the PML-N was able to win six seats and Muslim Conference won one seat.

The contest between the political parties was for 45 seats of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly were held on July 25. Following the latest results, PTI has 29 seats in the AJKLA, PPP has 12, and PML-N seven.

On July 29, PTI won the LA-16 Bagh 3 seat of the AJKLA, whose results were withheld for re-polling on four polling stations, after clashes at polling station suspended voting.

According to unofficial results, PTI candidate Sardar Mir Akbar bagged 23,561 votes, whereas PPP’s Sardar Qamaruz Zaman obtained 23,267 votes — a difference of a mere 294 votes.