LAHORE - Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan has emerged third largest party in terms of vote bank after PML-N and PTI on 14 National Assembly seats of the provincial capital.
Although Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) candidates failed to win any seat from the city, they left far behind the most experienced contesters of PPP and Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal in the election race from almost every constituency.
Allama Khadim Rizvi-led TLP had fielded 13 candidates in Lahore, leaving one seat vacant for Dr Ashraf Asif Jalali, the head of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Islam (TLI), who parted ways with Allama Khadim Hussain Rizvi’s TLP a year ago over political differences. MMA’s 12 aspirants, including Jamaat-i-Islami Secretary General Liaquat Baloch and JI central leader Amirul Azeeem, contested the polls from Lahore. MMA is an alliance of five religio-political parties representing all schools of thought. Another new party, Milli Muslim League, a political offshoot of Hafiz Saeed-led Jamaat-ud-Dawa, had fielded four candidates in Lahore from the platform of Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek (AAT), but they also failed to show any impressive performance and could not secure even 5,000 votes from any constituency.
The TLP candidates, according to the unofficial results displayed on the website of Election Commission of Pakistan, secured more than 20,000 votes in some constituencies, surprising many political observers about their performance.
The TLP is a political face of Tehreek-i-Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah, a Barelvi organisation, which received countrywide popularity due to its outspoken leader Allama Khadim Rizvi. He led a long march from Lahore to Islamabad in November 2017 on the Khatm-e-Nabuwat issue. The party had fielded around 178 candidates on NA seats across the country.
According to the unofficial results, TLP candidate Latif Khan Sara got 23,952 in NA-123 while the MMA and PPP candidates secured just 2,487 and 3,102 votes, respectively, from the constituency. TLP’s Sumaira Noreen secured 14,832 votes in NA-124, leaving for behind the MMA and PPP candidates who could only win 3,572 and 1,515 votes, respectively, from the constituency.
The ECP has not so far displayed results of NA-125 and NA-126. In NA-127, TLP’s Muhammad Zaheer secured 23,140 votes, MMA’s Rashid Ahmed 1,426 and Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek (AAT) mustered support of 2,044 voters while PPP’s Adnan Sarwar could only bag 1,775 votes.
TLI Head Dr Ashraf Asif Jalali won 20,734 votes from NA-128 from where PPP’s Zafar Ali Shah and MMA’s Manzor Hussain got more than 6,000 votes each.
TLP’s Muhammad Yousaf secured 12,875 votes from NA-129 and PPP candidate Iftikhar Saeed got only 2,569 votes from here while MMA had not fielded its candidates in the constituency.
TLP’s Hafeezur Rehman secured 10,755 votes from NA-130, leaving far behind much experienced Liaquat Baloch who could only get 5,176 votes. Baloch is secretary general of Jammat-i-Islami and MMA. PPP’s candidate Mumtaz Khalid got 2,508 votes. Syed Murtaza of TLP secured 9,780 votes from NA-131 while PPP’s Asim Mahmood got only 6,746 votes. MMA contender Waqar Nadeem could get only 1,912 votes from the constituency.
TLP’s Amjad Naeem got 7,305 votes, TLI’s Muhammad Nawaz 4,049 and MMA’s Haider Ali just 1,616 votes from NA-132. In NA-133, TLP’s Matloob Ahmed got 13,235 votes while PPP’s Aslam Gill and MMA’s Iftikhar Ahmed got 5,885 and 1,701 votes, respectively, from the area.
TLP’s Irfan Shehki got 9,901 votes from NA-134 while the MMA and PPP candidates got 1,454 and 5,425 votes, respectively, from this constituency.
Amirul Azeem, a central leader of JI, could get only 1,093 votes from NA-135 whereas an inexperienced TLP man, Ahmed Majid, bagged 8,196 votes from the constituency. PPP’s candidate Amjad Ali got 2,897 votes from NA-135.
TLP’s Ahmed Majid also contested from NA-136, the last constituency of Lahore, and got 12,684 votes whereas the MMA and PPP candidates could secure 1,521 and 9,601 votes, respectively, from the area.
