Sir: In a sizable upset for the Pakistan Tehreek Insaaf (PTI) before the upcoming general elections, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) won the by-polls for the NA-154 constituency. PML-N’s Iqbal Shah managed to attain 113,542 votes, while his competitor, PTI’s Ali Tareen, contesting his first election on his father’s seat, attained 85,933 votes. PML-N won by a margin of 27,609 votes according to provisional results. The seat fell vacant in the wake of the disqualification of PTI leader Jahanagir Tareen by the Supreme Court in December 2017. Considered the home ground of Tareen, PTI had won the seat with a margin of around 40,000 votes in the previous by-election in 2015. PTI fielded Jahangir’s son Ali Tareen, PML-N’s Iqbal Shah and PPP’s Mirza Mohammad Ali Baig. Seven other candidates were contesting as independents. While speaking to the media after casting his votes, Jahangir Tareen stated that there is no possibility of rigging in the by-election with the presence of army personnel outside polling stations. He said that the PTI will respond to the Election Commission of Pakistan’s notice of violating its code of conduct adding that institution did not take any notice when the PML-N legislators were running the campaign for their candidate. In total, 338 polling stations were set up in the constituency, where 431,002 voters were expected to exercise their right to vote. The Supreme court, in its judgement in December 2017, had said that Jahangir Tareen had pleaded guilty to insider trading and ruled that he cannot be termed honest and stands disqualified for life as per Article 62(1)(f) of the constitution. It had also said the PTI leader used suspicious terms in his statements to the court, besides not declaring his offshore company. The Election Commission of Pakistan had also issued a notice to both candidates for their violations. ARSALAN SAYAD Via E-Mail Published in Daily Times, February 15th 2018.