PML-N wins Sargodha by-poll with huge margin

PML-N-supported candidate Yasir Mehmood Sindhu defeated his rival PTI’s Rao Sajid Mahmood with a huge margin of over 19,000 votes as per unofficial results in the PP-30 by-election on Sunday.

Yasir Sindhu obtained 42,736 votes and his arch rival Rao Sajid Mehmood got 23,586 votes in the by-poll held peacefully in PP-30 Kot Momin Sargodha III. Yasir Sindhu contested election as an independent candidate, however, he was backed by the PML-N.

Yasir Sindhu is the nephew of late MPA Tahir Sindhu. The seat was vacated after the death of Tahir Ahmad Sindhu.

It will not be out of place to mention here that female voters of this constituency shown their inclination to exercise their vote but Panchyat of a village Chaowal refrained women of the area from casting their votes in the by-poll. As many as 729 women did not exercise their right of franchise in the polling. This tradition of halting females from casting their votes is constantly maintained in different areas of Sargodha .

Earlier, in village Liliani (PP-31), women voters were barred from casting their vote in by-poll. Neither any NGO nor the election commission of Pakistan intervened to ensure that women could exercise their right to vote in the said village.

A total of 137 polling stations had been set up in the constituency, which includes 16 union councils (UCs) of Tehsil Kot Momin and Tehsil Bhalwal.

Rangers and police personnel were deployed in the constituency for security during the by-poll.Out of the 173,912 registered voters in the constituency, 75,776 are women.

Arrangements for the by-poll were completed well in time, with two SPs, five DSPs, seven inspectors, and 1000 officers deployed to ensure a smooth voting process. Personnel of the armed forces were also on standby.

Earlier, an exit poll exercise conducted by the Coalition for Elections and Democracy (CED) in by-elections of Sargodha’s PP-30 constituency had indicated that the independent candidate backed by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had a clear lead.

Sindhu was contesting as an independent candidate following the Supreme Court’s February 21 order, in which it not only barred former prime minister Nawaz Sharif from heading the party he founded but also declared null and void all decisions he took after his disqualification as a lawmaker by the apex court last year in Panama Papers case.

And since nomination papers of all PML-N candidates were signed by Sharif, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had announced that they will be considered as ‘independent’ in all elections leading to the upcoming general election including Saturday’s Senate election.

PTI candidate Mehmood had recently joined the party after parting ways with the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F).

The provincial assembly seat fell vacant due to the demise of Chaudhry Tahir Sindhu. The constituency has around 173,919 registered voters – 98,145 male and 75, 774 female voters.