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Get ready for another by-polls?

ISLAMABAD    -    Though PTI Chairman Imran Khan has named himself as the first prime minister ousted through no-trust motion, yet he has made a history by managing to bag the most number of National Assembly seats in the by-elections. The question arises here that Imran has yet not shown willingness to rejoin the parliament, rather he is still adamant over his previous warning about ‘long march’. Khan, after winning most of seats in the by-polls, has constitutionally no option but to keep only one seat and surrender the rest. The country’s top electoral watchdog will take no time to register his name as MNA over the constituency, where the commission collected paper at the last. The rest of constituencies will stand vacant for another by-polls. Imran Khan, even before submitting his nomination papers in different constituencies had never hinted at rejoining the parliament but to show his popularity graph to the government clique. This will remain confusion for the national assembly secretariat, as to which seat should be marked with his name. The resignations for 125 national assembly seats including Imran Khan’s seat has also yet not been accepted. PTI after claiming a major share of the seats has also lost two of the NA seats — NA-157 Multan-IV and NA-237 Malir-II — that it had won in 2018. Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has defeated PTI on both the seats. The constituencies where the PTI has defeated PDM’s candidates were NA-22 Mardan, NA-31 Peshawar, NA-24 Charsadda, NA-108 Faisalabad- VIII, NA-118 Nankana Sahib, NA-239-Korangi PP- 209 Khanewal and PP-241 Bahawalnagar. The ruling party in the centre - PML-N - could not play well, as it got just one seat by winning PP- 139 Sheikhupura-V. Political pundits viewed that it would be another challenge for the federal government as the PTI is stick to his warning related to its long march. The test of top election body will start after the short break as it has to conduct bypolls on other assembly seats. The significance of these bypolls was that Imran Khan contested all the NA seats except one that is NA-157, where the party faced defeat. Khan also lost Malir’s seat and in total won six seats breaking his own record that he set in the last general elections. PPP founder Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had also contested on five seats and bagged four seats.

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