PTI should accept Lodhran by-poll success as Nawaz Sharif's victory, insists Waqas Sheikh

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) leader Waqas Sheikh on Tuesday said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) should accept the success of the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) in Lodhran by-poll as the victory of disqualified prime minister Nawaz Sharif, ARY News reported.

“If Jahangir Tareen’s last victory in the by-election was a PTI and its narrative’s victory then they should follow their own practice and accept this victory as the victory of Nawaz Sharif,” he said while talking to ARY News program ‘Off The Record’.

PTI fielded a very young candidate against the ruling party that emerged victorious in a by-election held on a National Assembly seat (NA-154) in Punjab’s Lodhran district on Monday.

PML-N’s Peer Iqbal Shah secured 1,16, 950 votes as compared to the runner-up, PTI’s Ali Tareen, who bagged 91, 230 votes.

Shedding light on what led to PTI’s defeat, Waqas Sheikh said Tareen failed to sell PTI’s  national narrative in his constituency.

Read More: NA-154 contest: PML-N shocks PTI with by-poll victory

“Once you spend billions of rupees and win a by-election then you think that now you have become electable and leave your constituency on your managers whose interest for the area also fades away very soon. You do not personally go and listen to the problems facing the residents of the area. You fail to deliver on the promises that you had made to them. Then with all your money you cannot win an election,” he said.

In response to a PTI MNA Shafqat Mehmood’s statement, the PML-N leader said if national political factors had made no influence on local factors then it was a very serious matter.

“What I understand is that, if your national narrative is unable to overpower a local narrative, it means it’s useless,” he said.