Rashid Bashir Virk keeps his late father’s Gujranwala seat by 13,147 votes and Asad Hanif retains Chichawatni’s PP-203, but few voters turned out and the main opposition stayed away.
LAHORE/GUJRANWALA:The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) held both seats in Sunday’s Punjab by-elections. In Gujranwala’s NA-77, a newcomer, the Pakistan Markazi Muslim League (PMML), finished a clear second on one of the lowest turnouts the constituency has recorded.
PML-N’s Rashid Bashir Virk won NA-77 Gujranwala-I with 43,365 votes. PMML’s Qazi Muhammad Ibrahim Gujjar received 30,218, according to the Form-47 provisional result reported by Dawn, a margin of 13,147 votes. Turnout was 15.65 percent.
In PP-203 Sahiwal-VI (Chichawatni), PML-N’s Chaudhry Asad Hanif Jutt retained the Punjab Assembly seat by 17,602 votes over Owais Mahmood Gujjar, on a turnout of 27.6 percent.
Both results are provisional until the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) issues official notifications.
Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif thanked voters and congratulated both winners. She said the victories reflected PML-N’s popularity and public confidence in the party, and that the people of Gujranwala and Chichawatni had endorsed “the politics of public service” and once again placed their trust in the party leadership.
A smaller electorate
The numbers tell a more mixed story. NA-77 has 518,620 registered voters, so a 15.65 percent turnout means only around 81,000 people voted. Virk’s 43,365 votes amount to about 8 percent of the electorate.
In the February 2024 general election, his father, Chaudhry Mahmood Bashir Virk, won the seat with 109,704 votes against 91,825 for Rashida Tariq, backed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), on a turnout of about 52 percent. The by-election was held after the elder Virk, a five-time MNA, died on September 11.
Much of the difference is explained by who did not take part. The PTI, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Jamaat-e-Islami did not field candidates, leaving PML-N and PMML as the only serious contenders among 11 candidates. Low turnout is common in by-elections, but it was striking in a seat where more than 200,000 people voted two years ago.
PMML’s showing
For PMML, which contested on the PTI and PPP’s absence, 30,218 votes was a significant result. Early counts showed a close race: with 125 of 333 polling stations counted, the gap was under 1,400 votes before Virk pulled ahead. During the campaign, the party had courted PTI and PPP voters while PML-N leaned on the Virk family legacy.
PMML had not issued a formal reaction to the result at the time of publication. The party has pressed the ECP for a date for Punjab’s local government elections, and its NA-77 performance will be watched as a sign of its prospects in those polls.
Complaints on both sides
Polling day brought allegations from both sides.
Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari said on X that supporters of PMML’s candidate had been caught “openly stamping ballots” in the presence of election staff. The provincial election commissioner directed the returning officer to investigate and submit a report. PMML has not responded publicly to the allegation.
The ECP issued notices for alleged violations of the code of conduct to several PML-N lawmakers who had reportedly visited polling stations, including MNAs Saira Afzal Tarar and Syeda Nosheen Iftikhar, MPAs Qudsia Batool and Hina Arshad Warraich, and parliamentary secretary Shazia Rizwan. On Saturday, the commission had also taken notice of federal Information Minister Attaullah Tarar’s visit to the constituency by helicopter to address a campaign event, as public office holders are barred from campaigning.
Security was heavy, with the army and Rangers on standby for both by-polls. Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja was briefed on polling at the provincial election commissioner’s office.
Chichawatni
In PP-203, the by-election followed the death of PML-N’s Chaudhry Muhammad Hanif, who had won the seat in a by-election in November 2025. The constituency covers Chichawatni city and surrounding rural areas. A PTI-backed independent from the Rai family won it in 2024, but after his disqualification PML-N took the seat in last year’s by-election.
For PML-N, the results extend a run of by-election wins in Punjab since 2024 and keep its numbers in both assemblies unchanged. For critics, the low turnout and the absence of the main opposition party make the results a weak test of public opinion. They do, however, put PMML on the map as a party able to draw tens of thousands of votes in central Punjab.
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