LAHORE: The loss of the NA 154 seat in the Lodhran by elections has come as a shock to the PTI as it was expecting an easy win in the constituency long held by Tareen.
PTI chief Imran Khan is reportedly furious over the NA-154 by-election loss that Ali Tareen suffered at the hands of the PML-N candidate as the initial report found fault with office bearers of the party.
The overconfidence shown by the PTI in the by elections as expecting it to be an easy win in the home constituency barring the fact that it was a by election under the Punjab government has led to the defeat of the PTI
According to details, an initial report prepared by the party was sent to the cricketer-turned-politician as to why the party’s candidate, Ali Tareen, who was the favourite to win NA-154 by-election, lost instead.
Sources claimed that as per the report, officer bearers of the party were not focused on mobilising the voters but were instead pretending to do so.
The report also stated that the party’s office bearers were busy in providing protocol to the PTI leadership.
It is pertinent to mention that PML-N’s Pir Iqbal Shah bagged 113, 230 vote with an overall lead of 27,540 votes against PTI candidate Ali Khan Tareen who stood second with 85, 690 votes.
Among the 10 contestants who had run for the election was also a candidate from the PPP and TLYR. The TLYR candidate came in at number three in the by-election.
The NA-154 seat had fallen vacant after Jahangir Tareen was disqualified by the apex court.