NA-168 Bahawalpur By-Election Result: PML-N's Munir Iqbal Channar Wins by 47,901 Votes

PML-N's Malik Munir Iqbal Channar has won the NA-168 Bahawalpur-V by-election with 87,789 votes, according to the provisional result signed by the Returning Officer on 28 September 2026. Independent candidate Wali Dad Cheema came second with 39,888.

That is a lead of 47,901 votes. Turnout was 29.46 per cent, the form says. Polling took place on Sunday 27 September, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif congratulated the winner the next day.

We read the NA-168 by-election result on the Election Commission of Pakistan's own website. It is the provisional result, on Form-47. It is not yet the final result, and the Election Commission has not yet notified him as the returned member.

Munir Iqbal Channar won NA-168 with 87,789 votes

Malik Munir Iqbal Channar of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) won NA-168 Bahawalpur-V with 87,789 of 140,847 valid votes, about 62 per cent. Wali Dad Cheema, an independent, got 39,888 votes, about 28 per cent, on the provisional Form-47.

Twenty candidates were on the form. Eighteen of them stood as independents. Only two party candidates appear: the PML-N winner and one candidate of a smaller party, who got 322 votes.

After the top two, the next highest totals were 6,081 votes for independent Muhammad Owais Khan Khakwani and 4,946 for independent Sohail Ahmad. Everyone else got fewer than 1,000 votes. Eleven candidates got fewer than 100 each.

The names are our English spelling of the Urdu on the form. The shares are our own sums from the form's figures, rounded to one decimal place.

Turnout was 29.46 per cent, and far lower among women

Of 483,143 registered voters in NA-168, 142,320 cast a vote, a turnout of 29.46 per cent. The form splits the count by sex. About 38 per cent of registered men voted, against about 20 per cent of registered women.

These are the exact figures on Form-47:

• Polling stations: 292
• Registered voters: 483,143, of whom 248,529 men and 234,614 women
• Votes cast: 142,320, of whom 94,388 men and 47,932 women
• Valid votes: 140,847
• Votes excluded from the count: 1,473, about 1 per cent of votes cast

Men cast almost twice as many votes as women, although there are only about 14,000 more men than women on the roll. The male turnout of 37.98 per cent and female turnout of 20.43 per cent are our own sums from those figures.

Form-47 is the provisional result, not the final one

A Pakistani election result passes through three stages. Unofficial counts come first. Form-47 is the Returning Officer's provisional result. The final consolidated result, on Form-49, and the Election Commission's notification come after. NA-168 is at the provisional stage.

The stages work like this, using the form numbers the Election Commission itself posts for by-elections:

1. Each polling station counts its votes and records the result on Form-45. Tallies passed around on election night are built from these, and they are unofficial.
2. The Returning Officer adds up all station results into Form-47, the provisional result. This is the stage we read for NA-168.
3. The Returning Officer then consolidates the result in the presence of candidates or their agents, recorded on Forms 48 and 49. Form-49 is the final consolidated result.
4. The Election Commission publishes a notification naming the returned candidate.
5. The member takes the oath in the National Assembly.

The oath can only happen when the National Assembly sits. It was last prorogued on 28 August, and the government has said both houses will meet in October, when a debate on new provinces is also expected.

The Form-47 for NA-168 is headed with a reference to rule 84(1) and describes itself, in Urdu, as the provisional consolidated statement of results. It is signed and stamped by Dr Ayesha Khan, Returning Officer NA-168 Bahawalpur-V, and dated 28 September 2026.

For comparison, the Election Commission's by-elections page already lists Forms 45, 46, 47, 48 and 49 for the PS-30 Khairpur-V by-election held in August. For NA-168 it listed only Form-47 when we checked on 28 September. Final figures can differ slightly from provisional ones after consolidation.

The seat fell vacant after the death of his father in August

NA-168 fell vacant after PML-N member Malik Muhammad Iqbal Channar died in August 2026, Radio Pakistan reported. His son, Malik Munir Iqbal Channar, stood for the same party. The provisional result keeps the seat with the PML-N.

Polling ran from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm on 27 September without a break, and it ended peacefully, Radio Pakistan said. The Election Commission had set up an election monitoring and control centre for the by-election.

Under section 182 of the Elections Act 2017, public meetings and processions were banned in the constituency for 48 hours ending at midnight after the poll. The Election Commission's press release of 24 September said the campaign would end at midnight between 25 and 26 September.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif congratulated Munir Iqbal Channar on 28 September. He said the result "reflects the public's confidence in the PML-N" and that the people of Bahawalpur "participated actively in the democratic process", according to Radio Pakistan.

Voters can check their own registration by SMS

If you live in Bahawalpur and did not find your name on polling day, check your registration before the next election. You can do it by sending your CNIC number to 8300, which returns your block code and polling station.

Local government elections in Punjab do not have a date yet. The Election Commission's press release list shows it held a consultation on setting that date, but we did not see an election schedule on that list on 28 September.

The PML-N also came first in the AJK election result in August, where our figures were unofficial counts during the phased polling.

Common questions

Who won the NA-168 Bahawalpur by-election?

Malik Munir Iqbal Channar of the PML-N won with 87,789 votes, according to the provisional Form-47 signed on 28 September 2026.

Who came second in NA-168?

Independent candidate Wali Dad Cheema, with 39,888 votes. The margin was 47,901 votes.

What was the turnout in the NA-168 by-election?

29.46 per cent. Of 483,143 registered voters, 142,320 voted.

Is the NA-168 result final?

No. Form-47 is the provisional result. The final result comes on Form-49 and then an Election Commission notification. Neither was on the Election Commission's website when we checked on 28 September.

Why was there a by-election in NA-168?

The seat fell vacant after PML-N member Malik Muhammad Iqbal Channar died in August 2026, according to Radio Pakistan.

Where can I see the official NA-168 result?

On the by-elections page of the Election Commission of Pakistan's website, which posts the forms for each constituency.

How we verified this

What we checked, where we read it, and what we could not confirm.

Last checked on 28 September 2026 at about 15:12 PKT. Every vote count, the turnout, the polling station total, the 20 candidates and the Returning Officer's name are from the Form-47 for NA-168 Bahawalpur-V on the Election Commission of Pakistan's by-elections page. The campaign end and section 182 are from the Election Commission's press release of 24 September 2026. The vacancy, polling hours and the Prime Minister's message are from Radio Pakistan reports of 27 and 28 September. Percentages other than turnout are our own sums. We will update this when Form-49 and the notification are published. If any detail is wrong, tell us and we will correct it openly.