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19 PML-Q federal ministers lose seats

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: The pro-[President Pervez] Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) suffered a stunning defeat in Monday’s polls, resulting in 19 hand-picked federal ministers losing their seats — mainly to PML-Nawaz (PML-N) candidates.

The ministers evicted include Omar Ayub Khan, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, Amin Aslam, Humayun Akhtar, Awais Leghari, Khurshid Kasuri, Rao Sikander Iqbal, Nourez Shakoor, Khusro Bakhtiar, Zubaida Jalal, Dr Sher Afgan Niazi, Wasi Zafar, Naseer Khan, Liaquat Jatoi, Sikander Hayat Bosan, Mushtaq Cheema, Yar Muhammad Rind, Ijazul Haq and Danyal Aziz.

National Assembly speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain also lost out his seat in the government. Former prime minister Shaukat Aziz was not one of the losers, as he had left the country much before the elections when he was refused a PML-Q ticket.

Meanwhile, the people who have won the elections and are likely to retain their seats include Aftab Ahmed Sherpao, Jehangir Tareen, Faisal Saleh Hayat, Zahid Hamid, Amir Muqam, Raza Hayat Hiraj and Hina Rabbani Khar.

Aftab Sherpao was contesting from the platform of his own faction of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). Jehangir Tareen, Zahid Hamid and Hina Rabbani Khar won 2002 elections on PML-Q tickets, but this time they chose to contest them on the tickets of the PML-Functional, the PML-N and the PPPP. All three won.

Faisal Saleh Hayat and Raza Hayat Hiraj had won the 2002 elections on PPP tickets, but later formed a separate faction called the PPP-Patriots. They then joined the PML-Q, along with other patriots, under the leadership of Rao Sikander Iqbal. Faisal Saleh Hayat and Raza Hayat Hiraj won their seats from PML-Q’s platform, defeating Syeda Abida Hussain and her husband Syed Fakhr Imam, respectively.

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