Khalid Khurshid Khan, the candidate of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), won the by-election to Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly’s seat GBLA-13 Astore-1, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Sunday.
As per results, PTI’s Khalid Khurshid Khan secured 6,219 votes, PML-N’s Rana Farman Ali bagged 5,225 votes and the PPP’s candidate secured 4,079 votes in the by-election.
There were at least 14 candidates, including nine independent ones, in the race for the GBLA-13 by-election.
The main contestants were Khurshid Ahmed Khan of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Rana Farman Ali of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Abdul Hameed Khan of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).
Similarly, Inayatullah Mir contested the by-election on the ticket of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) while Attaullah was the candidate of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP).
The seat fell vacant after Gilgit-Baltistan ex-chief minister Khalid Khurshid was disqualified in a fake degree case.
The petitioner argued that Khurshid’s law degree was fake, and he should be disqualified under Articles 62 and 63.
Khurshid claimed to have received a law degree from London, but it could not be verified.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) denotified Khalid Khurshid as the Chief Minister of Gilgit-Baltistan and declared the seat vacant.
Khalid Khursheed has been in office since December 2020, and he was a close aide of PTI chairman Imran Khan.