Daily Times

The joint candidate of Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Moazzam Ali Khan Abbasi, won the PS-11 Larkana-II by-election by easily defeating PPP candidate.

According to unofficial results, the joint candidate of the GDA and the PTI secured 31,557 votes, whereas PPP’s candidate Jameel Soomro managed to bag only 26,021 votes. The seat fell vacant after the Supreme Court declared the Grand Democratic Alliance’s (GDA) Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) Moazzam Ali Abbasi ineligible over failing to declare his assets following a petition filed moved by PPP’s Nida Khuhro.

It is pertinent to mention here that the GDA leader had won the polls in the PS-11 Larkana-II constituency during 2018 general election by defeating Nida Khuhro, the daughter of PPP Sindh PPP President Nisar Khuhro. Interestingly, her father was disqualified over a petition filed by Moazzam Ali Abbasi in which he had challenged the PPP leader’s nomination papers.

Meanwhile, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said on Twitter, “The same election commission that unnecessarily deploys military troops inside every polling station wants to stop elected representatives from visiting constituency on polling day.”

In his tweet, which did not mention the Larkana by-polls, he alleged it was a “blatant attempt to deprive PPP of an equal playing field”.

In a follow-up tweet, he said, “Only way to supervise and counter rigging attempts by the establishment is for elected members to carry out their democratic & constitutional rights. Any unconstitutional and illegal dictation must be resisted by democratic forces.”