Islamabad (October 15, 2018): Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Media Iftikhar Durrani has admitted that prevailing local issues in some constituencies impacted the outcome of the recently held by-elections.
Iftikhar Durrani said that issues on a local level in some of the constituencies where the by-elections were held on Sunday impacted the results.
He said that PM Imran Khan held a consultative meeting with party leaders earlier today, where the by-elections, government affairs and the country’s economic situation were among the matters discussed.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, however, secured 1,037,000 votes, the most out of all the parties, he pointed out. Durrani remarked that PTI voters are aware what the past governments did to the country.
He assured that the government will take the economic reforms agenda forward, adding that the prime minister’s priority is to provide relief to the poor. The ruling party maintained its slim majority in the parliament after the by-elections, final results showed.
PTI won 15 seats of the total 36 on offer in polls held across the country on Sunday, according to the Election Commission of Pakistan.
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Imran Khan had called a crucial party meeting today to examine the party’s poor performance in the by-polls, which were held on October 14 (Sunday).
According to sources, the PTI’s central leadership attended the meeting to review the party performance in a by-election and other issues.
PTI lost two of four national assembly seats vacant by the PTI chief.
PM Imran Khan had won five NA seats- NA35 Bannu, NA-53 Islamabad, NA-95 Mianawali, NA-131 Lahore and NA-243 Karachi, however, he had to vacant four of them as per the constitution, 
Imran Khan retained only NA-95 Mianwali seat and vacant other four seats, therefore ECP held by-poll on the vacant seats.
In the by-election, In NA-35 Bannu, Zahid Akram Durrani of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) won the by-election with 58,068 votes against PTI candidate Naseem Ali Shah, according to unofficial results.
NA-131: PML-N’s Khwaja Saad Rafique won the seat by defeating PTI’s Humayun Akhtar Khan.
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