Over 400,000 voters of NA-185 Dera Ghazi Khan-II will choose from a sitting Member of the Punjab Assembly and a former Chief Minister on November 23, 2025, to represent them in the National Assembly.
What areas does NA-185 comprise?
NA-185 D.G. Khan-II is one of the three National Assembly constituencies in the D.G. Khan district. Its territory encompasses the populous urban areas of Dera Ghazi Khan Municipal Corporation and extends south to include the Kot Chutta Tehsil and its corresponding Municipal Committee. The constituency is centrally located in the district, encompassing within its boundaries the complete provincial assembly constituencies of PP-288, PP-289, and PP-290. It also incorporates significant portions of PP-287 and PP-291.
What prompted the by-election?
The by-election was necessitated after the seat fell vacant due to the disqualification of the incumbent MNA Zartaj Gul on August 5, 2025. This followed her conviction by the Anti-Terrorism Court Faisalabad in connection with the violent protests of May 9, 2023.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) initially announced the by-election in the constituency for October 5, 2025. However, this schedule was suspended following a stay order from the Peshawar High Court, issued in response to a petition filed by Ms. Gul. After the stay order was vacated, the ECP issued a revised schedule on October 6, 2025, officially setting the polling date for November 23, 2025.
In the General Election of 2024, Gul won this constituency as an independent candidate backed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). She secured 94,927 votes, representing 48 percent of the total votes polled. Following the election, she joined the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), which served as the parliamentary front for PTI-affiliated lawmakers. She was elected from the constituency for the second time in GE-2024.
Check Here for the Constituency-wise Assessment of GE-2024 Election Results
Who are the key contenders in the by-election?
According to the Final List of Contesting Candidates (Form-33), eight candidates are competing for the vacant seat. Five represent political parties, including Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Jamaat-e-Ulema-e-Islam Pakistan (JUIP), Pakistan Nazriyati Party (PNP), and All Pakistan Muslim League-Jinnah (APMLJ). The remaining three are running as independents. PTI-SIC has announced a boycott of the election.
The contest is widely perceived as a direct contest between two prominent political figures Sardar Dost Muhammad Khan Khosa of PPPP and Mehmood Qadir Khan of PML-N.
PML-N candidate Mehmood Qadir Khan is a sitting Member of the Provincial Assembly (MPA) from PP-289 Dera Ghazi Khan-IV. He belongs to the influential Leghari tribe and has a substantial electoral history in this constituency. In the 2024 General Elections, he contested both national and provincial seats. While he secured the PP-289 seat with 38 percent of the polled votes, he was the runner-up in NA-185 where he could capture 20 percent of the total polled votes. His prior electoral profile includes a term as MPA (2013-2018) and as Tehsil Nazim of Dera Ghazi Khan (2005-2009).
PPPP candidate Sardar Dost Muhammad Khan Khosa is also a seasoned politician belonging to another influential tribe of the district. He is son of former Punjab Governor Sardar Zulfiqar Ali Khosa. He served as the Chief Minister of Punjab for nearly two months in 2008 as PML-N member. He joined the PPPP ahead of the General Elections 2018. Since then, he’s been finishing third in electoral races in the district. In the General Elections 2024, he contested both NA-185 and PP-289, finishing in third place with 13 percent and 11 percent of the polled votes, respectively.
The field also includes Suhail Meher-ud-Din (PNP), Nawab Muhammad Ali Faisal Saddozai (APMLJ), and Mr. Abdul Aziz Baloch (JUIP), alongside independent candidates Allah Bakhsh, Zafar Bashir, and Mureed Hussain. JUIP candidate had secured almost two percent votes in GE-2024.
What has changed since GE-2024?
Since GE-2024, the number of registered voters in the constituency has increased from 400,355 to 418,310, reflecting a rise of 17,955 voters, or approximately four percent. For the upcoming by-election, a total of 226 polling stations has been established, comprising 55 male, 54 female, and 117 combined polling stations. The number of polling stations remains the same as in GE-2024.
