Shabaz calls meeting of allied parties today in Lahore
The decision to award tickets to PTI defectors, high inflation due to record increase in the prices of fuel and electricity among other reasons resulted in the defeat to the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-N in Sunday’s Punjab by-elections, according to a party report submitted in its high-level huddle on Monday.
The detailed report on by-polls defeat was presented to the high command of PML-N in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Islamabad on Monday.
Punjab Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz, federal ministers Rana Sanaullah, Khawaja Asif, Marriyum Aurangzeb, Azam Nazir Tarar and senior party leaders including Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Malik Ahmed Khan, Attaullah Tarar, Sardar Owais Leghari, Rana Mashhood and others attended the meeting.
The huddle discussed the factors that led to the defeat of PML-N against its rival PTI in the polls and future course of action including possible options to save the Hamza-led Punjab government.
Currently, the PML-N’s combined strength is 175 and with three more votes PML-N’s total tally will rise to 178, while the PTI on its own will have a strength of 178, excluding the vote of estranged PTI MPA also the deputy speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari. With 10 more votes of PML-Q, Elahi’s victory is certain.
The sources said PM Shehbaz will summon a meeting of the coalition parties to formulate the future political strategy as the ‘surprising’ by-polls results intensified the calls for early general elections.
The party insiders said Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah presented the detailed analytical report of each constituency where the party lost the elections. As per the report, the PML-N workers and supporters rejected the ‘turncoats,’ who defected from the PTI. The party officials, workers and former local body representatives did not run the robust election campaign, said the report.
Moreover, the report added that PML-N-led government’s tough economic decisions to secure the IMF bailout package played a major role in the defeat.
Menwhile, after defeat in by-elections in Punjab, Prime Minister, Mian Muhamad Shahbaz Shairf has called a meeting of allied parties today in Model town, Lahore.
Federal Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb Monday said that the leaders of the allied parties of the government and the Pakistan Democratic Movement will participate in the meeting scheduled to be held Tuesday afternoon.
She claimed that PM Shehbaz Sharif has invited the leaders of the coalition parties of the government and PDM to his residence at 96-H Model Town, Lahore.
She was of the view that all the stakeholders, leaders of the allied parties of the government and PDM will review the overall situation in the country. In the meeting of the leaders of the coalition parties of the government and PDM, there will be consultation on important issues, she added.
