By IRNA
Islamabad : Pakistan People’s Party of the late prime minister Benazir Bhutto is leading in the parliamentary elections, initial unofficial results indicated on Tuesday.
Elections were held on 268 of the total 272 general seats of National Assembly, lower house of the parliament, on Monday.
The national assembly has the strength of 342 seats.
Polls were cancelled in four constituencies due to security problems and death of the candidates.
The PPP has secured 85 National Assembly seats in the 232 announced so far, according to Geo television.
Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) is placed in the second position with 64 National Assembly seats.
The Pakistan Muslim League (Q) has bagged third position with 38 seats.
The Mutahida Qaumi Movement has won 18 seats Karachi and the nationalist Awami national party has secured 10 seats in North West Frontier Province.
A total of 22 independent candidates have also won seats across the country, according to Geo TV.
22 former federal ministers and close allies of President Musharraf have lost their seats.
President of the former ruling PML-Q Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has faced defeat on two National Assembly seats in Punjab.
Speaker National Assembly Chaudhrey Amir Hussain was also defeated by PPP female candidate Firdus Ashiq Awan.
Leader of the Jamiat ulema-e-Islam Maulana Fazal ur Rehman was defeated in his home constituency of Dera Islamil Khan by the PPP Faisal Karim Kundi but he won another seat in the city of Bannu.
Polls for the general seats of 577 provincial assemblies were also held.
PML-N is leading in Punjab, PPP in Sindh, ANP in NWFP and PML-Q in Balochistan.
Elections on special women and minorities seats will be held on proportional representation basis after the general elections are held.
President Pervez Musharraf yesterday appealed to the losers parties to accept election results.
Major parties Pakistan Peoples Party, Pakistan Muslim League (N), Pakistan Muslim League (Q), Mutahida Qaumi Movement, Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal, Awami National Party are among 47 parties took part in the elections.
An alliance of over 20 parties All Party Democratic Movement (APDM) is boycotting the election.
Former ministers who faced defeat included Khurshid Kasuri, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, Zubaida Jalal, Rao Sikandar Iqbal, Liaquat Jatoi, Naseer Khan, Dr Sher Afgan, Hamayun Akhtar, Sikaran Bosan, Chaudhry Shehbaz Hussain, Yar Muhammad Rind, Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Wasi Zafar, Ejaz ul Haq, Naurez Shakoor, Owais Leghari, Malik Amin Aslam, Khusru Bakhtiar and Ishaq Khakwani.