PTI's woman candidate defeats son in Punjab assembly by-polls

A woman candidate of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf party defeated her son, who ran elections as an independent candidate against her, in a tough contest in the Punjab assembly by-polls, a media report said Monday.

Zehra Batool defeated her son and three-time lawmaker Haroon Sultan in the Punjab Province-272 by-poll Sunday, Express News reported.

Her husband Abdullah Shah Bukhari is a former National Assembly member and their elder son, Basit Sultan Bukhari, had won from the seat in the July 2018 general elections.

Basit had also won from the NA-185 constituency and decided to vacate the provincial seat, opening it up for a by-election.

Batool secured 24,019 votes against Haroon's 17,072 votes.

Haroon has been a member of the National Assembly three times and a provincial minister twice.

Elections were held Sunday in nine National Assembly constituencies in Punjab and one each in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and 24 provincial assemblies seats, including 11 in Punjab, nine in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, two each in Sindh and Balochistan.

Most of the seats where by-polls were held had been vacated by those elected on more than one seat in the July 25 general elections.

The PML-N won six out of 11 contested seats in Punjab while its arch-rival PTI won five.