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Chaudhry says it was not PML-N that won, but the PTI that lost the Daska by-polls

"The reasons behind [PTI's] loss in the [Daska] polls are the same that I keep drawing the party's attention towards," he says

By Web Desk
April 11, 2021
Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry addressing a press conference in Islamabad. — PID/File

"PML-N did not win in Daska, it is the PTI that lost there," Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry said Sunday, less than a day after the unofficial results for the hotly contested NA-75 by-election were announced.   

The federal minister, in a tweet, said: "The reasons behind [PTI's] loss in the [Daska] polls are the same that I keep drawing the party's attention towards."

Responding to PML-N Vice-President's statement following her party's victory, Chaudhry said: "Nawaz Sharif has no ideology, and neither is PML-N an ideological party [...] as it was in power for a long time, it has become group [that seeks to further its vested interests]."

The science minister said Prime Minister Imran Khan is "the (sole) hope for democracy in Pakistan" — as there is "no leader whose political stature equals his".

"Accepting Bilawal and Maryam as Pakistan's leaders would be a slap on the face of democracy," the science minister added.

The federal minister said PTI would have to put its own house in order, as the "country's future depends on PTI and Imran Khan's success".

Earlier in the day, Minister for Interior Sheikh Rasheed had said "democracy won" in the Daska by-election a day earlier, where PML-N's Nosheen Iftikhar defeated PTI's Asjad Ali Malhi.

The minister said it was a "defeat" for everyone who misjudged PM Imran Khan's vote bank in Daska, since the PTI candidate was defeated by a thin margin.

"We won even though we lost in the Daska by-election," the minister said. "We are proud that Imran Khan has a [sizable] vote bank in Daska to this day," he added.

He said the large number of votes polled by Asjad Ali Malhi in the Daska by-election was "proof of Imran Khan's narrative being alive".

Rasheed further said "wrestlers enter the ring but only one emerges the winner".

Unofficial results from all 360 polling stations in the NA-75 Sialkot-IV constituency showed that PML-N's Iftikhar secured 110,075 votes, whereas Malhi obtained 93,433 votes.