PPP Candidate Leads in Skardu By‑Election Amid Tight Security

When the sun rose over Skardu on September 5, a hush fell over the town’s 61 polling stations. The Gilgit‑Baltistan Election Commission had declared a local holiday, hoping to make it easier for every eligible voter – 33,985 of them – to get to the ballot box.

As the day wore on, the numbers began to trickle in. Unofficial, preliminary figures released late Saturday night showed PPP’s Akhtar Abbas Nashad pulling ahead with 8,040 votes. His closest rival, independent candidate Wazir Mohammad Saleem, was just 455 votes behind with 7,585.

The contest was anything but ordinary. It stemmed from a court‑ordered by‑election after the GB Supreme Appellate Court disqualified former PPP candidate Fida Muhammad Nashad, who had initially been declared the winner in the June general elections. Akhtar Abbas, the son of the disqualified legislator, stepped onto the ticket, hoping to inherit his father’s support base.

Security was tight. More than 800 police officers, bolstered by GB Scouts, patrolled the stations, especially those flagged as “sensitive” – 25 of them fell under Category A, while another 11 were medium‑sensitive (Category B). Despite the heavy presence, the voting process stayed largely smooth and peaceful, a testament to the local administration’s meticulous planning.

Besides the two front‑runners, the race featured a handful of other aspirants: PML‑N’s Mohammad Ajmal and former minister Mohammad Saleem, who ran as an independent, were among the ten candidates whose nomination papers were accepted. Yet, analysts had already tipped a close fight between PPP and the independent, noting that the sympathy vote for the Nashad family might tip the scales.

By the time the results were posted, a quiet optimism spread through the constituency. Whether the final count will uphold Nashad’s lead remains to be seen, but for now, the numbers suggest a tight, hard‑fought victory under the watchful eyes of both voters and security forces.