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Election Commission workers count votes in Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir, on Sunday. More than 2.8 million people voted in the state. Image Credit: EPA

Islamabad: The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) has won 19 out of 36 state legislative assembly seats contested in the just-concluded elections in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, provisional results show.

Winning a simple majority in the elections held on Sunday, the Pakistan ruling party is set to form the government in the state, where it has been active in politics for decades.

The country's main opposition Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N), which made its debut in the state in the elections, got only nine seats, four of which were those representing the Kashmiri diaspora in Punjab province, where it runs the provincial government.

The Muslim Conference, a Kashmir-based party that has ruled the region for much of its history since 1948, had one of its poorest showings, winning only four seats.

However, the outgoing Prime Minister Sardar Attique Ahmad Khan of the Muslim Conference won his own seat.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani talked to the premier by telephone on Sunday. Sources said he discussed the possibility of forming a coalition government in the state with the Muslim Conference.

Three former state prime ministers — Raja Farooq Haider Khan, Barrister Sultan Mahmoud, and Sardar Mohammad Yaqoob Khan — also won seats in the assembly.

Clashes

Two independents were returned and under the rules they can join any party when the assembly convenes.

The legislative assembly has a total of 49 seats, 29 representing residents in the state and 12 representing Kashmiris living in Pakistan. Eight seats are reserved for women and technocrats, to be decided later.

The state election commission had postponed elections in three constituencies in Pakistan before Sunday, including two in Karachi. Polls in a constituency in Lahore, Punjab, were cancelled due to clashes between rival political workers.

MQM plea to court

Karachi-based Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which was in the arena but boycotted the elections in protest at postponement of the elections in the port city, on Monday moved a petition in the Sindh High Court.

The petition pleads with the court to order holding of elections in the two Karachi constituencies as it contends the postponement for security reasons was mala fide and manipulated by the PPP government.

MQM chief Altaf Hussain, in a telephonic address to party workers from London on Sunday, lambasted the PPP government, saying it had deceived and stabbed an ally in the back.