peshawar   -   Following directive by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf activists here Friday, staged rallies and criticised the United States and the party’s dissident MNAs, and also celebrated party’s success in the second phase of the local government elections.

Earlier on Thursday, the ruling PTI swept the second phase of the local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The 18 districts where the LG elections were held in the second phase included Lower Dir, Upper Dir, North Waziristan, South Waziristan, Upper Chitral, Lower Chitral, Upper Kohistan, Lower Kohistan, Swat, Malakand, Abbottabad, Shangla, Mansehra, Battagram, Torghar, , Kolai-Palas, Kurram, and Orakzai districts.

The opposition parties faced defeat in city and tehsil councils’ polls in most of the areas. It merits mentioning here that in the first phase of the polls conducted in December last year, the JUI-F had won the most number of city and tehsil council seats.

On Friday, an audio message from the chief minister went viral on the social media. The message asked PTI ministers and activists to arrange photographs of the dissident MNAs and chant slogans against them in the protest rallies. They party leaders were also asked to criticise the US and chant slogans in favour of PM Imran Khan in the ongoing situation of no-confidence motion against him in the parliament.

In Peshawar, the major PTI rally was staged outside the Peshawar Press Club where some leaders including the PTI MPA Fazal Elahi were wearing coffin. The party activists also burnt the US flag at the protest rally.

According to the results compiled so far, the ruling PTI won more than 25, out of the total 65 seats of mayor and chairman of tehsil councils during the second phase of the LG elections, while results in some areas had not been finalised till the filing of this report.    Eight independent candidates also won in various tehsils of the province.

Discussing the second phase of the local government elections, Dr Faizullah Jan, a senior academician and analyst based in Peshawar, said that the better performance of the ruling PTI in the second phase was due to the consistent election rallies of the party leaders ahead of the elections, despite the fact that those rallies were a violation of the elections’ code of conduct.

“When government machinery is used in violation of the elections’ code of conduct, such results are not strange,” he added.

He said that dividing the LG elections in two phases also led to better results for the ruling party, and another reason was also some areas that already had PTI vote bank.

Yet another reason behind the success of the party can be the sympathy vote which the party candidates received because of the issue of the threat letter,   as Imran Khan claimed to have received, to oust him from power.

It’s worth mentioning that the Election Commission of Pakistan had fined the prime minister, KP governor and chief minister, and federal ministers several times over the violation of the code of conduct ahead of the elections.