Gilani, Ashraf face rout in polls; PPP suffers huge setback

May 12, 2013 10:58 am | Updated December 04, 2021 11:18 pm IST - Islamabad

Backdropped by election banners showing Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, a candidate of Pakistan People's Party, PPP, a Pakistani taxi driver looks out for a customer in Islamabad. File photo

Backdropped by election banners showing Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, a candidate of Pakistan People's Party, PPP, a Pakistani taxi driver looks out for a customer in Islamabad. File photo

In an embarrassing setback to Pakistan Peoples Party that ruled the country since 2008, former Pakistan Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf lost the election along with his predecessor Yusuf Raza Gilani’s two sons.

Mr. Ashraf, has suffered a humiliating defeat in NA-51 (Rawalpindi-II), Geo News reported.

As per unofficial and initial results, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Raja Mohammad Javed Ikhlas won the seat.

Ikhlas drew 82,339 while Raja Pervez Ashraf was way down with 23,233 votes received.

Similarly, Mr. Gilani’s both sons, Ali Musa Gilani and Abdul Qadir Gilani, have lost in polls from their Multan constituencies.

Abdul was kidnapped by suspected Taliban terrorists last week while he was campaigning.

Earlier, a Pakistani court had disqualified Yousuf Raza Gilani.

Going by the unofficial results, the PPP — which ruled the country for the last five years — has faced a major setback and has been effectively confined to Sindh.

As per available trends, PPP is likely to come a distant third but could play an important role in the government formation if PML-N fails to get a simple majority in the 342 seat strong National Assembly.

Top leaders of the party, including former Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira, lost their seats in the largest province of the country, Punjab.

Currently, the PPP has a majority in the upper house of Parliament, at least for the next one and a half years. Major legislation would not be possible for the new ruling party without the PPP’s consent.

In the 1970 elections, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s PPP conquered Punjab, with Lahore being considered one of the party’s hubs for some time after that stunning victory.

But the unofficial results of the 2013 election show that the party has once again been confined to Sindh, as it was in 1997 when the Benazir Bhutto—led PPP secured less than 20 National Assembly seats, Express News reported.

The party tried hard to restore its image in Punjab during the last five years but apparently its poor performance shattered its dreams. The PPP also promised to bifurcate Punjab, but even this slogan could not earn it votes in south Punjab, it said.

In the 2008 elections, the Asif Ali Zardari—led PPP secured 97 National Assembly seats. After getting 24 reserved seats for women and four reserved seats of minorities, the total number of NA seats for the PPP was 124 in a house of 340. The party formed a coalition government with the help of MQM, ANP and JUI-F.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.