Zardari lauds people of Multan, Malir for settling score with ‘political nomads’

A day after bagging NA-157 (Multan) and NA-237 (Karachi Malir) seats during the hotly-contested by-polls, former president and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari on Monday said that the people of Multan and Malir have settled score with the "political nomads".

Expressing satisfaction over the inclusion of two jiyalas (PPP political workers) in the National Assembly, he reiterated in a statement that South Punjab will become a province one day. "This is my promise and Bilawal Bhutto's manifesto," he added.

He said that victories in Multan and Malir belonged to PPP workers, adding that they were matchless and had no competition. Zardari also congratulated Ali Musa Geelani and Hakeem Baloch for winning the elections.

He also thanked the people of Multan and Malir for voting for PPP.

Based on PTI’s popularity and its momentum, many expected that the party would clean sweep the Sunday's by-polls. However, PPP made inroads, with Hakeem Baloch winning in Karachi and Ali Musa Gilani in Multan.

Soon after the results, Foreign Minister and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, taking to Twitter, congratulated both the candidates.

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 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.

Read more: Imran makes history in Oct 16 by-polls

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.