Jahangir Tareen appeared to be leading the 39,000 vote count as unofficial and unconfirmed results of NA-154

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI)'s Jahangir Tareen appeared to be leading the vote count as unofficial and unconfirmed results of NA-154 by-polls started pouring in on Wednesday night.

According to the unofficial results from all 303 polling stations of the constituency, reported by South Punjab News, PTI candidate Jahangir Tareen secured 121,700 votes with PML-N's Siddique Baloch, coming second by bagging 82,500 votes, thus beating the PML-N candidate by 39,200 votes.

In the 2013 general election PTI's Tareen was the runner up from NA-154. But in a petition with the election tribunal, Tareen had accused Baloch of possessing a fake degree and committing irregularities during the 2013 general election.

The tribunal eventually disqualified the PML-N lawmaker, barring him from contesting election for possessing a fake degree.

The Supreme Court, however, set aside one of the tribunal’s decisions and ordered re-election, allowing Baloch to contest again.

NA-154 was among the four controversial constituencies — the other three being NA-110 (Sialkot), NA-125 (Lahore) and NA-122 (Lahore) — where PTI had demanded for voters’ thumbprint verification before its street protest against alleged rigging in the 2013 general election.District Police Officer Asad Sarfraz Khan told  on Tuesday that 3,000 policemen and 1,100 razakar were to perform duties at polling stations. He said 47 polling stations were deemed most sensitive.

The DPO said voters would not be allowed to carry mobile phones and cameras to the polling stations.There are 419,182 registered voters – 228,870 male and 190,312 female in NA-154 constituency.