Big leaders in Pak, extremists suffer defeats at the hands of PTI

ISLAMABAD: Top Pakistan Muslim League-nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party leaders and those from extremist groups, including 2008 Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed-backed Allah-o-akbar Tehreek, have lost the general elections.

Hundreds of individuals linked with hardline and banned groups were competing in the polls. But so far, according to the trends, none of them appeared to be winning a seat in the national or provincial assemblies. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was still compiling official results at the time of going to print. Only a few could garner a respectable number of votes, including Maulana Muhammad Ahmed Ludhianvi, whose name was removed from a banned list called Fourth Schedule ahead of the election. The move to allow him to contest invited international backlash.

Former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and chief of the right-wing Jamat-i-islami Sirajul Haq were among the stalwarts who suffered defeats, Pakistani media reported. Abbasi, who became prime minister after the Supreme Court disqualified Nawaz Sharif in 2017, was contesting from seats in Rawalpindi, Murree, and Islamabad as a PML-N candidate.

But according to trends, he was trailing in Murree, which was considered as one of the safest PML-N seats. Abbasi’s father had won from Murree in 1985. Abbasi followed suit in 1990, 1993, 1997, 2008 and 2013 general elections.

PML-N chief Shehbaz Sharif, who was contesting three parliamentary seats, lost to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-insaf (PTI) candidates in Karachi and Swat, media reported. But he was leading from his Lahore seat.

Milli Muslim League linked to Saeed fielded dozens of candidates under the Allah-o-akbar Tehreek banner after ECP denied it recognition. Saeed led the campaign but his candidates were not seen anywhere near victory.

Others who lost include Maulana Fazlur Rehman, president of the Muttahida Majlis-e-amal, former Punjab minister and a close aide to Nawaz Sharif, Rana Sanaulla, and Khawaja Saad Rafique. Asfandyar Wali Khan, a grandson of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, lost from Charsadda.