Gilani son wins by-election

Islamabad: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) candidate Abdul Qadir Gilani, son of former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, has won a crucial by-election, but with a thin margin. This shows the steep fall in the party’s vote bank in one of its traditional strongholds.

He won back a National Assembly seat which fell vacant last month when the Supreme Court disqualified his father after convicting him for contempt of court over his refusal to write to Swiss authorities for reopening graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari.

According to unofficial results of Thursday’s by-election from the constituency in Multan, home and political base of the influential Gilani family in southern part of Punjab, Qadir Gilani polled 64,628 votes while his closest rival Shaukat Hayat Bosan, an independent, secured 60,532 in the neck-and-neck fight.

In 2008 general election Gilani had won the National Assembly seat from the sane constituency by beating Bosan’s elder brother with a margin of more than 24,000 votes while Qadir got only 4,000 more votes than his rival.

The Election Commission supervised the voting at 254 polling stations, providing for the first time in the country’s history transport for voters. Observers termed the polling fair and transparent.

Qadir’s supporters thronged the streets overnight to celebrate victory. Youths riding cars, motorbikes and jeeps with PPPP flags in their hands roamed around shouting slogans in the major city of Punjab, which is ruled by main opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

In a speech to the crowd Qadir said his success was the “verdict of the people’s court vindicating my father’s stand to uphold the constitution,” a reference to Gilani’s stand against writing a letter to Swiss authorities on the ground that head of state enjoys complete immunity under the constitution.

“The larger bench of 64,628 members of people’s court has unequivocally rejected the disqualification of my father,” Qadir said, as the crowd raised hands in approval.

Bosan said the by-election, in which the voter turnout was estimated at 45 percent out of a total of 307,871 registered voters, proved that the PPP would face the toughest opposition in the approaching next general elections.

In a congratulatory message, Zardari said that the PPP’s electoral victory in the land of the saints “will reverberate as a stark reminder to everyone that it is the people and people alone who pronounce the final verdict and are not afraid of overturning other judgments.”

The president, who is also PPP co-chairman, termed the victory as vindication for Gilani’s sacrifices for upholding the constitution.

He further said that it was a great victory for his party as it won the election against heavy odds in which all political opponents had joined hands together to defeat PPP, but failed.

Bosan, whose brother is a member of the Pakistan Tehreek e Insaaf (PTI) led by cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, was officially backed by PML-N. He also had covert backing of PTI, Jamaat e Islami and Defence of Pakistan council, a grouping of religious parties, according to reports.

In is post-election speech, the PPP winner quipped : “We have shown Imran Khan how to take four wickets on a single ball.”