Reporting snapshot · 28 September 2026. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Malik Munir Iqbal Channar has won the National Assembly by-election in Bahawalpur's NA-168 constituency. Unofficial and unconfirmed results from all 292 polling stations, reported after midnight on 28 September, put him on 79,306 votes against 42,623 for the runner-up, independent candidate Wali Dad Cheema. The Election Commission of Pakistan had not issued a formal result notification at the time of writing, and the tally remains provisional until it does.
What happened
PML-N candidate Malik Munir Iqbal Channar has won the by-election in National Assembly constituency NA-168, Bahawalpur, retaining the seat for the ruling party after the death of his father, former MNA Malik Muhammad Iqbal Channar. Unofficial and unconfirmed results from all 292 polling stations reported on 28 September showed Munir Iqbal securing 79,306 votes, a lead of 36,683 over independent candidate Wali Dad Cheema, who polled 42,623 votes, Geo News reported.
Polling ran from 8am to 5pm on Sunday, 27 September, without interruption. Voters who were already inside polling stations when voting closed were allowed to cast their ballots past the scheduled time, The News International reported, citing the Election Commission. More than 483,000 voters were registered in the constituency.
The win returns the Channar family to the seat. In the February 2024 general election, Malik Muhammad Iqbal Channar won NA-168 for the PML-N with 124,529 votes, according to Geo News. His son had previously served as deputy mayor of Bahawalpur Municipal Corporation before being awarded the party ticket for the by-election.
The candidates and the vacant seat
The NA-168 seat fell vacant after the death of Malik Muhammad Iqbal Channar in August. Twenty candidates contested the by-election, but the contest effectively narrowed to two: Munir Iqbal, fielded by the PML-N to preserve the family’s hold on the constituency, and Wali Dad Cheema, the son of former federal minister Tariq Bashir Cheema, who ran as an independent, Dawn reported.
Dawn’s coverage of polling day described a largely peaceful process. The provincial election commissioner noted that “routine complaints” were received, and balloting was briefly disrupted at a polling station in Akhtarabad after a brawl between voters that was attributed to an alleged confrontation between election staff and political workers. The control room of the provincial election commissioner took immediate action and the district returning officer and returning officer brought the situation under control with police help, after which polling resumed as usual.
The two main candidates represented competing political lineages in southern Punjab. Munir Iqbal inherited a seat his father had held for the PML-N, while Cheema, whose father Tariq Bashir Cheema is a former federal minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid leader, ran as an independent with a campaign that appealed directly to PTI supporters after the party boycotted the poll.
A campaign framed by boycott and coalition arithmetic
The result was shaped as much by the political context around the by-election as by the local contest itself. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) did not field a candidate. PTI chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan had said the party would not participate in any electoral process under the current circumstances, Dawn reported ahead of polling. That left Cheema openly courting PTI voters, while several PTI figures from Punjab posted messages rejecting the suggestion that the party or its supporters were backing his group.
At the same time, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) withdrew its own candidate and announced support for the PML-N nominee, a move its leaders framed as consistent with the federal coalition agreement. PPP leader Syed Ali Haider Gillani said his party was supporting the PML-N under the terms of the coalition, Dawn reported.
The campaign also revived the long-running demand for a separate Bahawalpur or Seraiki province. Cheema and his father campaigned on restoring the Bahawalpur province, a theme that has periodically resurfaced in southern Punjab politics and that the PPP has also publicly engaged with as part of a broader debate on new provinces. The demand has figured in national political discussions on creating new provinces in recent months, and the by-election gave it a local, electoral expression in one of the region’s National Assembly seats.
For the PML-N, the win consolidates its position in southern Punjab at a time when the party has been pressing its electoral strength in recent contests, and it hands the ruling coalition a comfortable margin in a constituency it had held continuously.
What the prime minister said
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif congratulated Munir Iqbal on the victory, describing the result as an expression of the people’s confidence in the PML-N. He also felicitated Munir Iqbal’s brother, Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker Malik Zaheer Iqbal Channar, on the outcome.
“The late Malik Muhammad Iqbal Channar rendered valuable services to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, and the victory of his son is a reflection of the continuation of that loyalty and public service,” the prime minister said, according to Geo News and The News International. He praised voters in Bahawalpur for participating in the democratic process and electing their representative.
What is still uncertain
The figures reported across Pakistani media on the morning of 28 September are unofficial and unconfirmed. The Election Commission of Pakistan had not published a formal result notification at the time of writing, and its official count could differ in detail from the preliminary tally.
The margin itself — 36,683 votes — is not in dispute across the three reports reviewed, and neither are the top-two vote totals. What remains open is the commission’s formal declaration, any post-poll petitions, and the timing of the notification that formally fills the seat in the National Assembly. Turnout figures were not yet consolidated in the reports reviewed. As with all such coverage, this account is a dated snapshot of a developing electoral result rather than a forecast.
Sources & reporting notes
This is a synthesis of published reporting, not eyewitness coverage. Sources were reviewed on 28 September 2026. The result figures are unofficial and unconfirmed as reported by all three outlets; the Election Commission of Pakistan had not issued a formal notification at the time of writing.
- Geo News — PML-N retains NA-168 as Malik Munir Iqbal Channar wins Bahawalpur by-poll28 September 2026 · The full unofficial tally from all 292 polling stations (79,306 to 42,623), the death of Malik Muhammad Iqbal Channar as the vacancy's cause, PM Shehbaz's congratulations, the 2024 result and Munir Iqbal's deputy-mayor background.
- The News International — PML-N's Malik Munir Iqbal Channar wins NA-168 by-election, PM hails voters mandate28 September 2026 · Independent confirmation of the result and vote totals, the registered-voter count, polling hours and the prime minister's reaction.
- Dawn — Polling concludes in Bahawalpur's NA-168 by-election27–28 September 2026 · Polling-day account including the peaceful process, the Akhtarabad polling-station incident and its resolution, registered-voter and polling-station data, and the PTI boycott and PPP support that framed the campaign.
