AJK's LA-26 by-elections: Polling begins

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MUZAFFARABAD: The residents of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) capital Muzaffarabad are polling to elect their representative for the AJK legislative assembly today.

The seat, LA-26, Muzaffarabad-3, became vacant due to withdrawal of the former AJK prime minister and organiser of PML-N in the state. He won from two constituencies, but preferred to retain the Legislative Assembly seat from his native area, Hatian Bala, LA-28, Muzaffarabad-5 and vacated the Muzaffarabad seat where he got 24,909 votes and defeated a PPP candidate, Muhammad Ashfaq Zafar, who bagged 24,333 votes.

In the general elections held in the month of June of the current year, the PML-N candidate was declared returned by the election commission with 13,362 votes while the PPP candidate, Khawaja Farooq, got 11,786. The third major candidate here was Sardar Usman Attique, the grandson of Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan. This time the PML-N has fielded Barrister Iftikhar Gillani, who is facing the joint candidate of PPP and the Muslim Conference (MC) Sardar Usman Attique Khan.