LAHORE: A Christian candidate for Union Council No 38 in Okara won the election defeating a ruling party candidate with a 560-vote margin.

Independent candidate Iftikhar Jagga bagged 3,080 votes while PML-N`s Nadeem Abbas ended up with 2,520 votes in elections for the rural union council of Okara where a majority of Muslims are voters.

Having a degree in MBA (marketing) and the son of a tenant, Mr Jagga works for a poultry medicine manufacturing company. He says he decided to contest the elections on the platform of the Anjuman Mazareen Punjab (AMP) after a majority voters of both Muslim and Christian communities asked him to represent them in local councils.

`The AMP movement has contributed a lot raising religious harmony among the people in the area,` he told Dawn.

`I couldn`t refuse when people asked me to contest. So I fought elections in the constituency only to protect their rights.

Mr Jagga contested elections with the election symbol of pressure cooker. He said he had received a warm welcome from everyone wherever he went during his electioneering.

He said a majority of voters, he had met during the campaign, were of the view that the PML-N candidate should not contest elections for he had been in politics for the last 15 years, which showed people wanted a change of face.

Not only Jagga, but his panel of councilors also won the election.

He said his penal had decided to give equal representation to Muslim and Christian people on the reserved seats of the union council.

He said people also elected him for he had promised them that he would deliver on education,health,etc.-KHALIDHASNAIN