ISLAMABAD: PML-N’s Sheikh Ansar Aziz was on Monday elected first-ever mayor of the capital city. PML-N’s other nominees, Chaudhry Riffat Javed, Syed Zeeshan Naqvi and Azam Khan, were elected as deputy mayors.
According to unofficial results, Aziz managed to secure 49 votes, while the opposing candidate from Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) secured 26 votes.
Earlier, elections were held at the Convention Centre between 9am and 5pm. Polling took place through a secret ballot, an Election Commission of Pakistan spokesman said. The ruling PML-N was slated to win the elections and was in place to win all the seats as it holds 50 of the total 77 votes of members of the Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation (IMC). PTI has 27 votes. The PML-N fielded Sheikh Ansar Aziz, a friend of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, for the seat of the mayor, while Chaudhry Riffat Javed, Syed Zeeshan Naqvi and Azam Khan were contesting for the seats of deputy mayors.
PTI, meanwhile, had fielded Raja Khurram Nawaz as its mayoral candidate. Ali Awan, Fouzia Arshad and Raja Zulqarnain were contesting for the deputy mayor seats. All three PML-N candidates for deputy mayor are from the capital’s rural areas, and made headlines during the submission of nomination papers due to widespread belief that they were chosen based on their connections. PML-N and PTI appeared to be putting up a tight race during the first round of the local government (LG) elections in December ? the first LG polls held in the federal capital since 1979. The last such exercise was held under military rule on a non-party basis and was limited to rural areas only.
