In Lahore, three politicians have achieved a distinctive feat by winning general elections despite not actively participating in the campaign due to their incarceration.
This noteworthy occurrence took place in the 1985 and 2002 general elections when voters in Lahore elected three individuals who were, at the time, imprisoned and not physically involved in the election campaigns.
The first instance of this unusual precedent was observed in 1985 when Sheikh Rohail Asghar became an elected Member of the National Assembly (MNA), and his brother, Sheikh Shakeel, became a Member of the Provincial Assembly (MPA). Despite being under arrest, their supporters managed their campaign.
In the contest for NA-83 in Lahore, Sheikh Rohail Asghar secured victory with 46,646 votes, defeating Mian Abdul Kabir, who garnered 19,056 votes. Sheikh Rohail’s victory was significant, marking the highest margin for someone who did not actively participate in the campaign. Simultaneously, his brother, Sheikh Shakeel Asghar, triumphed in PP-98 with 27,831 votes, while Mian Imtiaz Khaliq secured the second position with 6,064 votes.
Seventeen years later, in 2002, during the Musharraf era, Makhdum Javaid Hashmi, the acting President of PMLN, won from NA-123 in Lahore while in prison. He secured approximately 29,000 votes, with PPP’s Tariq Waheed Butt as the runner-up with around 18,000 votes.