• Sheikh Rohail Asghar and Sheikh Shakeel won in 1985.
• Makhdoom Javaid Hashmi clinched victory in 2002.
• Hashmi was jailed during Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf’s era.

LAHORE: Three politicians in Lahore are known to have set a unique record of winning general elections in the country’s history without even running a poll campaign, as they remained behind bars during the contest, The News reported on Thursday.

Veteran politicians including Makhdoom Javaid Hashmi, Sheikh Rohail Asghar and his brother Sheikh Shakeel are some of the candidates who contested polls and even won them while being imprisoned in the elections that took place in 1985 and 2002.

All the politicos, at the time of their wins, belonged to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), except Hashmi, who later joined the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

The politicians took oaths after their production orders were issued.

The first such precedent was witnessed in the year 1985 when PML-N leader Asghar got elected as a member of the National Assembly, while his brother Sheikh Shakeel became a provincial lawmaker. Both the brothers were under arrest at that time and their campaign was run by their supporters.

In that contest from the then NA-83, Lahore, Asghar won the seat securing 46,646 votes against Mian Abdul Kabir who could only fetch 19,056 votes. The PML-N stalwart won that contest with a big margin, and the highest by anyone without participating in the campaign.

His brother Shakeel won from the then-PP-98 while getting 27,831 votes and Mian Imtiaz Khaliq stood at number two with 6,064 votes.

Besides, 17 years later, in the year 2002, the then-acting president of PML-N Hashmi won from NA-123, a seat in Lahore while he was jailed during the former military ruler Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf’s era.

He secured around 29,000 votes and PPP’s Tariq Waheed Butt was a runner-up with around 18,000 votes.