Shah Mehmood Qureshi holds PTI responsible for loss in 2018 polls

MULTAN: Former Foreign Minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said his own party defeated him in the election of Punjab Assembly’s PP-217 constituency during 2018 general polls, ARY News reported.

Addressing a rally during the election campaign of PTI ticket holder Zain Qureshi from PP-217, Shah Mehmood said his own party conspired against him in the 2018 elections.

Qureshi said that he told former prime minister and PTI Chairman Imran Khan that the situation in Punjab would not be as it is today if Shah Mahmood had been an MPA from here.

It is pertinent to mention here that Shah Mehmood Qureshi had contested the election on provincial assembly seat PP-217 in 2018, but lost to independent candidate Sheikh Salman Naeem.

After winning the election, Salman Naeem – who was part of the Jahangir Tareen group – joined the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.

He voted for Hamza Shehbaz during the election of Punjab Chief Minister at the request of Jahangir Tareen, on which the Election Commission had de-seated the membership of 25 MPAs including Salman Naeem.

Earlier, a three-member ECP bench on May 11 rejected the disqualification references against 20 dissident MNAs on the ground that Article 63A of the Constitution did not apply to the 20 MNAs who had jumped ship ahead of the no-confidence motion.