Begum Kulsoom wins husband Nawaz Sharif's Lahore home seat

Islamabad, September 18: Ousted Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's wife and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Begum Kulsoon Nawaz has won the crucial Lahore by-election. The win is being seen as a test of support for the family after Sharif's ouster.

According to local Media reports, Kulsoon Nawaz defeated Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf candidate Yasmin Rashid by a margin of more than 13,000 votes. Kulsoon Nawaz got 61,254 votes, whereas Yasmin Rashid got 47,066 votes. When the results starting coming in initially, Yasmin seemed to be taking the lead but the situation changes soon after.

Maryam Nawaz ran her mother’s campaign for her as Kulsoom Nawaz is currently undergoing treatment for cancer in London. These elections were also being considered a test for Maryam, who apparently passed it with flying colors.

Meanwhile Yasmin accepted her defeat gracefully but vowed to approach the court against the Election Commission of Pakistan for registering 29,000 bogus votes in the constituency.

The seat fell vacant after the Supreme Court dismissed Sharif from the office in the Panama Papers scandal. Nawaz Sharif has been elected many times from this constituency and became prime minister twice from the same area.

Pakistan’s Apex Court disqualified Sharif from office for not being honest and concealing assets. The probe against him began after his children were named in the leaked so-called Panama papers for owning off-shore accounts and properties.

The case, concerning allegations of money laundering by Sharif in 1990s when he twice served as Prime Minister to purchase assets in London, was launched on November 3, 2016, and the court held 35 hearings before concluding the proceedings on February 23 this year. The assets surfaced when Panama Papers last year showed that they were managed through offshore companies owned by Sharif's children.