Highlights
– Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party registers huge victory in by-elections
– Imran Khan led-PTI won 6 National Assembly seats and 2 Punjab Assembly seats
– Ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz bagged only one Provincial Assembly seat
Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) successfully pulled off six out of a total of eight National Assembly seats in by-polls on Sunday.
The PTI had contested seven National Assembly seats and swept six, including the Peshawar and Provincial Assembly seats of Mardan and Kahnewal.
However, Khan’s Party faced a defeat in a vital seat of Multan, where Mehr Bano Qureshi, Pakistan’s former foreign minister Shah Moshmodd Qureshi’s daughter, was defeated by Ali Musa Gilani, the country’s former premier Yusuf Raza Gilani.
Pakistan’s dispensation Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz bagged only one Provincial assembly seat.
The Election Commission of Pakistan data showed that a total of 101 candidates from different political parties and independents are taking part in the vote, including 52 in Punjab, 33 in Sindh, and 16 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Around 4.472 million voters are registered in these constituencies. In Punjab, 1,434 polling stations have been established, 979 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 340 in Sindh.
While the ex-leader will have to resign from all but one of the seats he won — and elections will have to happen again — the victory suggests voters in the nation of more than 220 million people support his political narrative.
The former cricket star, who was ousted from power through a no-confidence vote in April, has been holding rallies across Pakistan that are attracting large crowds to seek early elections, Bloomberg reported.
Imran Khan was ousted from prime ministerial office after a no-confidence motion against his government was passed in April. Khan regularly attacked the current Pakistani regime in his campaign for the by-polls.
Khan had won 15 of 20 Punjab assembly seats in by-polls in July.
