PPP grabs Balochistan Assembly seat in by-election
By Saleem Shahid
QUETTA: Pakistan People’s Party gained a seat in the Balochistan Assembly on Wednesday as its candidate Sardarzada Nasir Khan Jamali won the by-election for PB-25, Jaffarabad-2, with a large majority.
According to unofficial result available late in the night, Mr Jamali had secured 27,516 votes and independent candidate Mir Ataullah Khan Buledi had 8,915 votes.
Mai Jori Jamali, the first woman to contest an election for a general seat in the history of Jaffarabad district, could get only 491 votes. She was a candidate of the Awami Party Pakistan and supported by various NGOs.
This was the first victory of the PPP in the constituency since 1970.
In the 1970 elections, Mir Shahnawaz Khan Shahalyani had won from the area as an independent candidate, but he later joined the PPP.
The seat had fallen vacant after the murder of Sardarzada Rustam Khan Jamali in Karachi in July last year. Rustam Jamali had won as an independent candidate in the 2008 elections.
After Nasir Jamali’s victory, the PPP’s strength in the 65-member provincial assembly has increased to 14. The party had won seven seats in the general elections. Dr Agha Irfan Karim and Jan Ali Changezi, who had won as independent candidates, joined the party later. The party won three seats reserved for women and minorities.
The party later won another seat from Pishin that had fallen vacant after the death of Malik Sarwar Khan Kakar. His nephew Asfandyar Kakar won on the by-election as a PPP candidate.
Independent candidate Ataullah Buledi also belonged to the PPP, but he was not awarded ticket for the election by the party. Political observers think People’s Party’s decision to award the ticket to a member of the Jamali family would help bring the clan closer to the party.
Source: Dawn
Date:3/11/2010
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