Cricketer—turned—politician Imran Khan seems to have bowled an over pitched delivery in Pakistan’s general elections by winning far lesser seats than what he expected, but has yorked everyone out in the troubled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where his party is set to emerge as the single largest.
The flamboyant 60—year—old Imran, whose party Pakistan Tehreek—e—Insaf is set to come a distant second in the historic general elections, won from three National Assembly seats while losing in Lahore.
Mr. Imran won NA—71 Mianwali in Punjab province with huge mandate, bagging 101,000 votes, Geo News reported.
According to unofficial results, Ubaidullah Shadi Khel received 53,000 votes as a runner up from the same constituency.
Mr. Khan also won from NA—1 Peshawar—1 with 66,465, defeating Awami National Party stalwart Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, who secured 44,210 votes.
Accepting defeat, the ANP leader said that to lose and win was a part of politics. Khan also won aginst PML—N candidate Hanif Abbasi in Rawalpindi, media reports said.
However, in a setback to Khan, he lost NA—122 Lahore—5 seat (61,300 votes) against Pakistan Muslim League—N candidate Sardar Ayaz Sadiq (71,420 votes).
Trends from 264 of the 272 parliamentary seats that went to the polls showed that the PML—N was set to bag in excess of 125 seats, while Pakistan Tehreek—e—Insaf and the Pakistan Peoples Party were lagging far behind with 34 and 32 seats, respectively.
Imran may not have swept the 2013 elections as he predicted but his party proved itself to be a force to reckon with by securing a sizeable number of seats for the National Assembly.
Imran Khan had formed PTI in 1996. His party had won only one seat in 2000. Imran resigned from Parliament in 2002 in protest and boycotted the 2008 elections.
