Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan on Monday said PTI chief Imran Khan’s extraordinary success in Sunday’s by-polls reflected the victory of the former premier’s narrative and predicted that the historic triumph on multiple seats was a prelude to the general elections that would see Imran's return to the office.
In a statement, the chief minister Imran’s ‘tabdeeli’ (change) had now transformed into an “unsparing revolution” which no one could afford to confront. He termed the by-polls a “referendum” against the “gang of thieves”.
“It has been proven that the alliance of 13 parties has been completely rejected by the people and it has been left bereft of any legitimacy to stay in power,” Mahmood asserted. He added that the people have announced their decision as to which political party and which leader was capable of leading the nation.
“Like Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the people of the entire country are standing with Imran Khan and the results of the by-elections clearly show that in the upcoming general elections PTI will sweep the entire country and form the government with a two-thirds majority.”
The chief minister also expressed his gratitude to the “politically conscious” masses for showing full confidence in PTI and said that these elections have “buried the politics of all parties of PDM forever”.
“It has become clear that PTI and Imran Khan represent the aspirations of people.”
He went on to stress that the people have sealed the fate of the entire nation and rejected the “imported rulers”. “These by-elections are a trailer for the upcoming general elections, in which the PTI will return to power with a two-thirds majority.”
Imran Khan made history on Sunday as emerged victorious on six National Assembly seats for the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in a by-election that was seen as a direct contest between the former ruling party and the current ruling coalition, which also grabbed two seats.
Out of the eight National Assembly seats previously held by the PTI, Imran contested on seven, while Meher Bano Qureshi was to defend the party’s bastion in Multan. However, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) made inroads, with Hakeem Baloch winning in Karachi and Ali Musa Gilani in Multan.
According to the unofficial results announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), Imran won the National Assembly seats from Mardan, Charsadda and Peshawar in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Faisalabad and Nankana Sahib in Punjab and the Korangi district of Karachi in Sindh.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 18th, 2022.
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