Nine NA lawmakers held responsible for PTI's defeat in KP LG polls

PESHAWAR: Nine lawmakers have been declared responsible in Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) defeat in the first phase of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) local government (LG) polls, ARY News reported on Wednesday.

After the election defeat in PTI’s stronghold Peshawar, an investigation report was presented to Prime Minister Imran Khan in which nine Upper House lawmakers including the governor, speaker of the National Assembly were declared responsible for poor performance.

The report covered all areas of weakness of the political party to expose the reason for PTI’s electoral loss in KP. Those lawmakers and senior leaders have been named in the report who had not supported the political party.

Moreover, four provincial ministers among 11 lawmakers from the KP Assembly were also held responsible for PTI’s defeat.

READ: PTI PAID PRICE FOR ‘MISTAKES’: PM IMRAN KHAN ON KP LG POLLS RESULTS

The investigation report blamed inflation, wrong distribution of party tickets among candidates and internal conflicts of local leaders for impacting the election results that had gone go against the ruling political party.

According to the report, district-level office bearers were named who had recommended the candidates. It was learnt that the Peshawar mayor’s ticket was issued over the recommendations of KP governor, Kamran Bangash and Taimur Jhagra.

The report also stated that the PTI mayoral candidate had lost the polls with a close margin.

The opposition of Arbab Shehzad’s family was declared as the prime reason for defeat in mayoral elections in Peshawar, whereas, the differences between the governor and a Member of the National Assembly (MNA) Nasir Khan Musazai have resulted in electoral defeat in Budhbir tehsil.

READ: PM IMRAN KHAN TO GET BRIEFING FROM KP CM OVER PARTY’S ELECTION DEBACLE

In Mathra, Arbab Noor Alam and a Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) Arbab Muhammad Waseem Khan were blamed for supporting the opposition’s candidate.

The party ticket was issued to a candidate in Pishta Khara tehsil on the recommendation of the KP governor where Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) clinched victory. A PTI provincial lawmaker Fazal Shakoor Khan had run the campaign against the opposition’s candidate.

The candidate, who had been awarded a ticket on the recommendation of the Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Noorul Haq Qadri and a NA lawmaker, lost the polls in Khyber district. The report blamed MPA Shafiq for not supporting the party candidate.

In Mardan, all party tickets had been issued by Atif Khan but PTI did not win a single seat. It emerged that several complaints had been registered for not consulting the party workers.

READ: PTI LEADER SEES ROCKETING INFLATION BEHIND KP LG POLLS “DEFEAT”

In Swabi, the tickets had been issued on the recommendations of NA Speaker Asad Qaiser and Shahram Khan Tarakai but the ruling political party managed to win only one seat.

Moreover, the candidates who had been given tickets in Kohat failed to clinch victory, whereas, Shehryar Afridi was blamed for running a campaign against the PTI candidate.

In Hangu, the party ticket was issued on a local MPA’s recommendation but the candidate got defeated in the polls. The provincial minister Wazir Shah Muhammad was blamed for running a campaign against the PTI candidate.

Differences between Hisham Inamullah Khan and Ali Amin Gandapur have resulted in PTI’s defeat in Lakki Marwat. It emerged that the party ticket was issued on Gandapur’s recommendation.

The tickets had been issued among three candidates over CM’s recommendations in Buner who won the seats. In Haripur, the ruling political party faced defeat despite the ticket distribution by Ayub brothers, the report stated.

KP CM, PM Khan meeting

Sources told ARY News that KP Chief Minister Mahmood Khan called on PM Imran Khan in Islamabad today in which he presented the investigation report to the premier, detailing the poor performance of the leadership in the recent LG polls in 17 districts.

Sources said that the premier issued guidelines to the chief minister regarding the strategy of KP LG polls’ second phase. After holding a meeting with PM Khan, CM Mahmood Khan departed for Peshawar.

‘PTI paid price for mistakes’

Prime Minister Imran Khan had said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) paid the price for mistakes it made in Sunday’s first phase of local government elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

“PTI made mistakes in 1st phase of KP LG elections & paid the price. Wrong candidate selection was a major cause,” PM Khan tweeted.

“From now on I will personally be overseeing PTI’s LG election strategy in 2nd phase of KP LG elections & LG elections across Pak. InshaAllah PTI will come out stronger.”

According to the provisional results declared by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the JUI-F had managed to grab the highest number of mayor /chairman seats in the elections for 39 tehsils.

The JUI-F had won 15 seats of mayor / chairman. It also has a definitive lead in the hotly contested election for the post of the mayor of Peshawar city where JUI-F’s Haji Zubair bagged 62,388 votes against 50,659 votes of PTI’s Rizwan Bangash.