The ruling 12-party coalition of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) was caught in a trap of their own as Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan clinched a historic victory on six out of eight National Assembly (NA) seats in the October 16 by-polls.
Imran Khan-led PTI recaptured six of its eight NA seats and two more in the Punjab Assembly in Sunday by-polls, as per unofficial and unconfirmed results, after the PTI chief set a precedent in the country’s political history as one candidate running for as many as seven NA seats, whereas, the eighth NA seat was contested by Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s daughter Meher Bano Qureshi in Multan.
PTI lost two of its NA seats – NA-157 Multan and NA-237 Malir in Karachi at the hands of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).
دلچسپ تفصیلات pic.twitter.com/sKpnju8ANS
— Imran Khan (@ImranRiazKhan) October 16, 2022
However, the political party won six NA seats including NA-22 Mardan, NA-31 Peshawar, NA-24 Charsadda, NA-108 Faisalabad-VIII, NA-118 Nankana Sahib, NA-239-Korangi and two PA seats including PP-209 Khanewal and PP-241 Bahawalnagar.
The ruling Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) just got victorious on one PA seat, PP-139 Sheikhupura-V.
Analysts said the PDM parties hoisted with their own petard as they devised a strategy to defeat Imran Khan-led PTI by gathering their whole vote bank in the said constituency.
They said that the ruling PDM and their allies had devised a strategy to give a blow to the political power of PTI in parliamentary politics by organising by-polls in those constituencies where PDM candidates had performed well in the 2018 general elections but still they failed to win the electoral contest against PTI.
Here are some election results in the 2018 general elections:
Analysts said that the top leaders of the PDM parties thought to defeat the PTI enjoying peak of popularity across the country by merging their vote bank in the respective constituencies, however, Imran Khan foiled the scheme of his political opponents by announcing to contest the polls by himself on all NA seats.
They said that the PTI chief grabbed a historic victory by winning on six out of eight NA seats and shattered all plans of the PDM parties by using his popularity amongst the nationals. They added that the ruling PML-N was facing an alarming downfall in parliamentary politics at the hands of PTI in its stronghold Punjab as it failed to win even one NA seat.