PPP jubilant over two by-election victories
PHOTO: FILE
With the unofficial results for the by-elections on Sunday still pouring in, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari congratulated his party’s Musa Gilani, the son of former premier Yousuf Raza Gilani, for his victory in NA-157 (Multan) as well as Hakeem Baloch for bagging the seat of NA-237 (Karachi Malir).
“Karachi & Multan, bye bye PTI! Congratulations to brother @SyedMusaGillani & Hakeem Baloch for defeating @ImranKhanPTI from [the] seats he had stolen in 2018 election. #JeetKaNishanTeer,” Bilawal, who is also the foreign minister, tweeted.
Musa defeated Meher Bano Qureshi, daughter of PTI Vice President Shah Mahmood Qureshi, with a huge margin of almost 20,000 votes. According to unofficial results, he has bagged 79,743 votes against Meher’s 59,993.
In a major setback to the PTI, PPP’s Hakeem Baloch defeated party chairman and deposed premier Imran Khan in NA-237 Malir by a margin of over 10,000 votes.
As per unofficial results, the PPP candidate secured 32,567 votes against Imran’s 22,493.
There were huge celebrations in Karachi's Malir area over Baloch’s victory.
Speaking on the occasion, Baloch said the PTI had no evidence of rigging and that was why they were raising hue and cry.
PPP Karachi President Saeed Ghani said the people of Malir had snatched back the seat that was stolen from them in 2018.
He added that wherever the PTI chief had succeeded in the by-polls, it was purely because he was personally contesting those seats.
“Even in those constituencies, the vote bank of the PTI has dropped,” he maintained.
Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, PPP provincial president Nisar Khuhro and CM’s aide Waqar Mehdi also congratulated Musa and Baloch for their victory in the by-elections.
The chief minister said Multan was the hub of the PPP and the success in Karachi had shown that it’s people still stood with the party.
He especially congratulated Musa’s father, ex-premier Gilani, and attributed the victory to the activists of slain PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto.
The PML-N only bagged PP-139 Sheikhupura-V, which was its own seat.
In NA-31 (Peshawar), according to unofficial results of all 265 polling stations, the PTI chief has clinched the seat by securing 57,824 votes against ANP’s Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, who came in second with 32,253.
However, Bilour refused to accept the defeat and announced that he would challenge the result in court.
He also accused the PTI-led Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government of using its influence to win the by-poll.
Imran has also defeated ANP provincial president Aimal Wali Khan in the by-election for NA-24 (Charsadda) by bagging 78,589 votes against the latter’s 68,356.
Aimal too has accused the PTI of rigging the polls and announced that he would approach the Election Commission of Pakistan for the verification of votes.
He claimed that he had already learnt a night earlier that the K-P government was planning to cast bogus votes.
He added that 10,000 bogus votes were cast in favour of the PTI chairman.
(With input from our correspondent in Peshawar)