Senior politician Javed Hashmi on Tuesday congratulated the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) over the victory of its candidate Begum Kulsoom Nawaz in NA-120 by-election.
Addressing a press conference here, he said that Begum Kulsoom Nawaz retained the National Assembly (NA) seat, vacated by former prime minister Muhammad Nawaz, due to the hectic campaign conducted by her daughter Maryam Nawaz Sharif.
Hashmi said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Yasmin Rashid grabbed some 7,000 less votes as compared to the 2013 general election, which showed that the people had lost confidence in the politics of PTI chief Imran Khan.
He expressed concern over the growing division in the ranks of all mainstream political parties. “Declining popularity of Pakistan People’s Party and Jamaat-e-Islami in Punjab was a matter of concern as their candidates got very little votes in the Lahore bye-election,” he added.
Hashmi also said that PPP and JI were nearing their political demise. However, he added that he did not wish to see this happen and both parties should continue to survive.
Hashmi was speaking in context of the recent NA-120 by-election in which Sheikh Muhammad Yaqoob — an independent candidate backed by Jamaat-ud-Dawa’s (JuD) unregistered political party Milli Muslim League (MML) – bagged more votes than the PPP and JI candidates.
