Islamabad: Pakistan’s ruling party under new prime minister Imran Khan has maintained its slim majority in parliament after key by-elections, final results showed yesterday.
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) won 15 seats of the total 36 on offer in polls held across the country on Sunday, according to the Election Commission of Pakistan.
Its ally the Pakistan Muslim League, one of several parties with which it has formed a coalition government, won an additional two seats, bringing the coalition’s total in the national assembly — the lower house of parliament — to 177 out of 342.
The main opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) increased its seat count to 85.
Most of the national assembly seats had been open as Pakistan allows candidates to run in multiple constituencies, but keep only one seat.
However, the ruling PTI lost at least three seats (two in National Assembly and one in Punjab) it had won in July 25 elections.
Prime Minister Imran Khan who had contested and won the election from five National Assembly seats in July 25 elections — NA-53, Islamabad; NA-131, Lahore; NA-95, Mianwali; NA-35, Bannu; and NA-243, Karachi, later decided to retain NA-95 Mianwali and quit the other four seats.
In the October 14 by-elections, however, PTI could get back two of the four (NA-53 and NA-243) seats while on NA-131 Lahore and NA-35 Bannu, candidates of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) respectively were declared winner.
Former Railways Minister Khwaja Saad Rafique (60,352 votes) won against PTI’s Humayun Akhtar Khan (50,155 votes) with a margin of over 10,000 votes in NA-131.
Besides, in Punjab Assembly’s constituency PP-292 Dera Ghazi Khan (DG Khan) PML-N’s Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari did an upset for PTI. This was the seat that was won by PTI’s Mohammad Leghari in July 25 general elections, but later he vacated it in favour of National Assembly as he had won from NA-192 DG Khan as well.
Another setback for PTI was the victory of former Prime Minister and stalwart of PML-N Shahid Khaqan Abbasi who won from NA-124 though it was vacated by PML-N’s own Hamza Shahbaz Sharif.
On Monday, all the media channels and newspapers highlighted PTI’s poor performance in the bypolls terming it voters’ no-confidence vote on the party’s policies, particularly, its strategy to meet economic challenges.
In Rawalpindi’s NA-60, too Railways Minister Shaikh Rashid Ahmad’s nephew and PTI candidate Shaikh Rashid Shafique had a close contest with PML-N’s Sajjad Khan and won by only 647 votes. He secured 44,483 against Sajjad Khan’s 43,836 votes.
Leader of the PML-N and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif while talking to media persons in the Accountability Court expressed gratitude to the voters who have ‘overwhelmingly voted for PML-N in the by-elections.”
This shows people have rejected the current government’s poor performance in the first 50 days, he said, adding the dollar had never gone up during the first four years of his government.
The fact that PML-N candidates have won on PTI seats in by-elections shows that people have endorsed PML-N’s narrative and reposed confidence in the PML-N despite conspiracies, said Sharif.
On the other hand, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry in an interview with the media said PTI had emerged as the single largest party after Oct 14 by-elections. Apart from the three seats, the party retained its seats in Khyber Pakhunkhwa, Punjab and Centre, he said.
He said PTI, after the by-election results, in fact had emerged as the single largest party in the country.
The PTI candidates had won six seats out of eleven in the National Assembly, which was an encouraging sign for the party, he said.
— with inputs from AFP
