PESHAWAR, Pakistan: The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), which enjoys a two-third majority in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly, was dealt a severe blow in the first phase of local bodies elections in the province.
The first phase of local government elections in 64 Tehsils of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s 17 Districts was held on Sunday, for which more than 9,000 polling stations and nearly 29,000 polling booths had been set up enabling more than 12 million registered voters to cast their votes.
As per the unofficial results of 55 Tehsils received so far, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI) has succeeded to bag 18 seats of Tehsil Mayor while PTI has won 14 seats.
Independents and Awami National Party (ANP) have won 8 seats each, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) 3, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) 2, and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) & Tehreek-e-Islahat Pakistan (TIP) 1 each.
55/64 results announced so far:
| Party | Seats |
| JUI-F | 18 |
| PTI | 14 |
| ANP | 8 |
| Independent | 8 |
| PML-N | 3 |
| JI | 2 |
| PPP | 1 |
| TIP | 1 |
In the Peshawar City Mayor election, the PTI Candidate Rizwan Bangash also lost to the JUI-F’s Zubair Ali.
Zubair Ali secured 62,388 votes whereas Rizwan Bangash took 50,659 votes.
While the ANP’s Candidate won the Mardan City Mayor election.
Reportedly, PTI couldn’t win a single seat in Mardan and Haripur Tehsils while out of 4 Swabi Tehsil seats, it managed to secure just 1 seat.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister’s Advisor on Finance Shaukat Tarin has won the Senate seat from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by securing 87 votes.
The Senate seat was vacated after the resignation of Muhammad Ayub Afridi.
