GILGIT: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) won GBA-09 (Skardu-III) after official Form-47 figures issued Sunday showed Akhtar Abbas Nashad beating independent Wazir Muhammad Saleem by 305 votes in Saturday's by-election. Nashad polled 8,399 votes to Saleem's 8,094, with a turnout of 51.79 percent among roughly 33,985 registered electors across 61 polling stations.
Ten candidates contested the seat, though the main race narrowed down to Nashad and Saleem, a former minister who won the same seat in 2020 and finished a close second in June. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Mohammad Ajmal was also in the running.
The polls were necessitated following the Gilgit-Baltistan Supreme Appellate Court's July 9 ruling disqualifying Nashad's father, Fida Muhammad Nashad, for concealing assets.
Local administration confirmed that the polling process remained peaceful overall, with strict security measures in place across all constituencies to ensure a transparent voting experience for citizens.