In a major setback ahead of next general elections, the Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Monday lost the National Assembly by-election in its stronghold, the Lodhran district of Punjab, to its archrival, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), with a considerable margin. The PTI had fielded Ali Tareen to win back the seat his father lost due to disqualification by the top court. However, Ali Tareen was overwhelmed by PML-N’s Peer Iqbal Shah, who bagged 116,590 votes. Ali Tareen got 91, 230 votes, nearly the same that Siddiq Baloch of the PML-N had secured in the Dec 2015 by-election against Jehangir Tareen.
The PML-N leader and deposed premier’s daughter Maryam Nawaz took to Twitter to congratulate the people of Pakistan on the ‘divine’ response to the ‘treachery and plotting’. On the other side, PTI chief Imran Khan accepted his party’s defeat as he called the ‘setback’ an opportunity to analyse mistakes, correct them and come back stronger. He was of the view that successful people, institutions and nations learn from the mistakes and improve.
But the issue here is this PTI is perhaps not learning from its mistakes. This is not the first result in favour of PMLN; in almost all the previous by-elections in Punjab PTI could not perform well. Result of NA-154 was surprising for many political pundits as it was being expected that PTI will successfully secure its seat in the by-elections. Some are of the view that PTI should not divert from its manifesto. One of the basic elements of the manifesto was to take stand against inherited politics. It was narrative of PTI to discourage the trend of Pakistani politics that revolves around few families. But party made a basic mistake by backing a candidate that is son of a person who is disqualified by the apex court.
It is also being said that PTI could not respond properly on the stance of PML-N that its party head was disqualified on an agenda and not on merit. Many voters still believe that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was ousted because of not taking salary from his son. PTI is not left with a lot of time to find out the loopholes in its performance in the by-elections as next general elections are around the corner. Recent held by-elections results reflect that PML-N has successfully played the cards to get sympathy factor of voter regarding ouster of Nawaz Sharif.