HANGU: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan won the by-election held for a vacant seat in National Assembly constituency NA-45 Kurram, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Sunday.

Imran rec­e­ived 20,748 votes against 12,718 secured by his close rival Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl’s Jamil Khan, according to unofficial results. The turnout remained around 18.4 per cent as voters mostly stayed away from the polling process.

Imran and were among the 16 candidates contesting the by-election.

The polling began at 8am and continued till 5pm on Sunday. Out of 143 polling stations in NA-45, 119 were declared sensitive, whereas 24 were termed as extremely sensitive.

DPO Kurram, Arbab Shafiullah has said that strict security arrangements have been made with CCTV cameras placed around the polling areas.

In order to maintain law and order situation, the military, police and frontier corps are on duty.

Provincial Election Commissioner KP has said that Chief Election Commissioner Sikar Sultan Raja has directed them to deal with any type of misconduct in the polling process by law. He moreover told that the ones who would try to stop women voters from using their voting right would be dealt with strictly.

There are 16 candidates contesting in the by-election. Along with the PTI chief, Jamiat Ulema e Islam-Fazal (JUI-F) Jamil Khan and Jamaat Islami candidate Malik Sher Muhammad Khan are also battling for the seat. A tough competition is being expected between Imran Khan and the JUI-F candidate.

As per Election Commission, there are 1,98,618 registered voters, among which there are 1,13,349 male and 87,269 female voters.

The seat for NA-45 Kurram fell vacant because PTI MNA, Malik Fakhar Zaman Khan resigned from his seat on April 11, 2022- when PTI members decided to resign en-masse after Imran’s ouster.