Pakistan Tehreek-e-Inasaf (PTI) Chief Imran Khan, who won three National Assembly seats, would likely vacate the Minanwali and Peshawar seats where his party emerged as the strongest.
PTI sources said that the party leadership was seriously considering vacating Peshawar and Mianwali seats as PTI candidates would easily retain these in the by-elections compared to NA-56 in Rawalpindi where Khan defeated Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)’s candidate Hanif Abbasi.
NA-56 has been a PML-N stronghold since the last 15 years, where Khan secured 80,425 votes against Abbasi’s 67,167.
Sources said that the party’s leaders feel that after the PML-N’s clean sweep in Punjab it would be difficult for PTI to retain this seat as Nawaz Sharif’s party could easily influence the by-elections. Further, by-elections usually have low voter turnouts, which will go against Khan’s favour.“We can easily retain the Mianwali and Peshawar seats in the by-elections compared to Rawalpindi,” PTI sources said.
Imran Khan can rely on a considerable family vote bank in Mianwali, and in Peshawar, PTI took the lead, thus by-elections will create no issues for our party, declared a senior party leader who did not wish to be named.
He added that the party will take a final decision on this matter in the next two days.