Aleema Khan (centre), sister of the leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) political party, Imran Khan, addresses supporters during a protest against the killing of Zara Shahid Hussain, a leading member of PTI, outside the mausoleum of Mohammad Ali Jinnah in Karachi yesterday.
KARACHI: The party of former Pakistani cricket hero Imran Khan secured victory in a repeat election held in one constituency of violence-plagued Karachi, election officials said yesterday.
Voting was held under tight security in 43 polling stations on Sunday, a day after a senior official of Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party was shot dead outside her home in the city.
Polling was re-run after complaints of ballot-stuffing in the upmarket district of the vast port city, Pakistan’s economic engine, during the May 11 general election.
The PTI’s Arif Alvi secured 77,659 votes to beat his closest rival Khushbakht Shujaat of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) who polled 30,365 votes, election commission spokesman Najib Ahmed said giving the unofficial results. Troops, police and paramilitary rangers backed up by armoured personnel carriers guarded polling stations in the NA-250 constituency after PTI provincial vice-president Zahra Shahid Hussain was killed on Saturday night.
Her death followed a bloody election campaign marked by more than 150 killings since mid-April. Khan was quick to pin the blame on the MQM and specifically its chief Altaf Hussain, who lives in exile in London, saying he had “openly threatened PTI workers and leaders through public broadcasts”.
The outcome was not a surprise as the MQM boycotted Sunday’s partial polls after its demand for re-polling in the entire constituency was rejected by the election commission. “Our victory in Karachi marks a new era of peace, tolerance,” Alvi said.
“The people have shown their strong will for a change in the political landscape of this city, which is the backbone of the country in all terms.”
The MQM has long dominated in Karachi but lost seats at the election and senior party leader Farooq Sattar rejected the results of what he called the “farcical” re-run poll.
The election was won by the Pakistan Muslim League (N) of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who is set to serve an unprecedented third term as premier nearly 14 years after he was deposed in a coup.
Khan’s party came in third, according to partial official results, behind the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) which led the outgoing coalition government.
Meanwhile, furious members of the MQM have denied responsibility for the killing of Zara Shahid Hussain on Saturday outside her home in the upscale Defence area of Karachi, capping a bloody election in which about 150 people were killed nationwide.
MQM leaders condemned the killing by unidentified gunman and demanded a retraction from Khan.
The May 11 elections gave the MQM 18 of 19 national assembly seats in Karachi, which has long been the party’s power base. Khan’s party won a re-vote in part of one constituency of Karachi on Sunday, giving it one seat and also angering the MQM.
About 3,000 MQM joined the protest to denounce Khan, whose Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) party was to hold a rally later in the evening and elsewhere in the city. “We won’t allow Imran Khan to come Karachi if he continues with these baseless allegations,” senior MQM member Nabeel Gabol said as protesters chanted anti-Khan slogans.
There was no sign of violence, but the mood of protests in Karachi, Pakistan’s biggest city, can turn quickly.
Karachi generates about half of the government’s revenue and is home to Pakistan’s main port, stock exchange and central bank. Stability in the city is key to the stability of the nuclear-armed country.
Agencies
