The unexpected sweeping victory of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf

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Lahore: 19 July 2022: The ‘unexpected’ sweeping victory of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) in the all-important Punjab by-polls is set to influence the political as well as economic future of the country.
The result establishes that the voters didn’t like the unpopular decisions of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz both on economic and political fronts: allowing the inflationary trend to continue to ward off economic meltdown and giving its tickets to PTI ‘turncoats’.
The outcome of the by-elections to 20 seats of the Punjab Assembly held in a largely peaceful manner on Sunday has not just sealed the fate of Hamza Shehbaz’s government in Punjab but also sent alarm bells ringing for Shehbaz Sharif’s federal government. The PTI-PML-Q alliance has improved its tally from 173 before the by-election and crossed the magical number of 186 to form its government in the province.
All the seats the PTI claimed on July 17 either directly belonged to the party or were won by the independents who later joined it during the government formation process. Imran Khan led a vigorous campaign against those who had ditched the party during the first poll for chief minister on April 16 and voted for Hamza. He has also been targeting the Establishment for not siding with him in foiling the ‘conspiracy’ the PML-N, PPP and other parties had hatched “with the help of the United States” to dethrone him.
However, those keenly watching the political situation say the rising inflation graph cost the PML-N more than Khan’s narrative. Inflation, which had been a drawback of the PTI government and had been repeatedly targeted by then opposition PML-N, came to haunt the latter when it took the reins of the country in April.

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