The February 18 elections have given a new dimension to the country's politics. Despite some rigging complaints and disorderly arrangements, because of its reasonably fair features, most of the leading political giants toppled. Now the Sialkot district political theatre has set new parameters to experiment with the newly elected legislators.
These elections-results in the district left the common masses and political parties in a daze. It may be mentioned that Sialkot is not only the hub of cottage industry but the city is centre point of the Pakistan Muslim League -N (PML-N) as it bagged four out of five national assembly seats and eight out of 11 provincial assembly seats.
The new tempo and trends that voters displayed have overwhelmed most of the overconfident political party leaders. There were five National and Eleven provincial Assembly seats and out of total registered 1,475,270 voters, 667,241 were females.
An analyses of the results show that the PML-N obtained 42.92 percent votes, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) 28.53 percent and PML-Q were totalled 24.22 percent in five National Assembly seats of the district.
Constituency-wise turnout was 42.80 percent in NA-110, 55.70 percent in NA-111, 55.63 percent in NA-112, 55.02 percent in NA-113 and 59 percent remained at in NA-114. The PML-N stood on top by bagging 343,549 votes, PPP 228,350 and Pakistan Muslim League-Q remained on third position by taking 193,910 votes in the five national assembly seats of the district.
Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan (PPP) in NA-111 had the credit of upsetting political scenario by defeating the NA speaker, Choudary Amir Hussain by 32554 votes. Similarly, Rana Abdul Sattar of PML-N defeated the president, PML-Q, Choudary Shujaat Hussain by 49669 votes. In NA-114 former federal Law Minister and the PML-N candidate, Zahid Hamid remained on top by obtaining 59 percent votes and defeated the PML-Q candidate, Choudary Abdul Sattar by 6008 votes.
On of the towering name, Choudary Akhtar Ali of Vireo failed despite his negotiations with the PML-Q leadership. As a result, his real brother, Choudary Abdul Sattar, son, Choudary Khush Akhtar Subhani and nephew, Choudary Armughan Subhani experienced defeat.