LAHORE: The ruling PML-N backed candidates won 11 seats and opposition managed to secure a seat. The election saw a 100 percent turnout as all 368 legislators casted their votes. Three votes were declared invalid. The ruling Nawaz League’s candidates were contesting as independent after their party head Nawaz Sharif’s disqualification as per decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan. On the seven general seats, PTI’s Chaudhry Sarwar bagged the highest 44 votes, while the PML-N backed independent candidates including Rana Maqbool won elections by receiving 43 votes, Asif Kirmani with 42 votes, Haroon Akhtar Khan 42 votes, Mussadaq malik with 42 votes, Shaheen Khalid Butt with 41 votes and Rana Mehmoodul Hassan with 40 votes. PML-N’s backed independent candidate for general seat Zubair Gul lost the election as he managed to get 38 votes. PPP candidate for general seat Shehzad Ali Khan obtained 26 votes, even though the party has only eight MPAs in the assembly, indicating that some MPAs of the ruling party may have voted for him as second priority. PML-Q candidate Kamil Ali Agha lost election, getting just seven votes, despite his party’s eight MPAs in the House. On two reserved seats for women, PML-N’s backed independent candidates Sadia Abbasi got 160 votes and Nuzhat Sadiq 152 votes. On technocrat and ulema seats, Ishaq Dar and Hafiz Abdul Karim as independent candidates from Nawaz League won the elections by receiving 155 votes and 160 votes respectively, while PPP’s candidate Nawazish Ali Pirzada and PTI’s Malik Asif Javed lost with 12 and 34 votes, respectively. Kamran Michael, backed by the ruling party, succeeded with 321 votes on the reserved seat for minorities. PTI’s candidate Victor Azraya got only 36 votes. Published in Daily Times, March 4th 2018.