ECP announced the postponement of polls owing to Muharram
Local leaders and workers of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) faced a setback when they learned that party chairman Imran Khan deferred his Karachi visit ahead of Punjab’s chief minister election tomorrow even before the ECP announced the postponement of polls owing to Muharram and rainy weather.
They had anticipated it as a major and final push for their campaign for the upcoming local government elections in the city.
Before the Sindh elections were delayed, a PTI spokesman asserted that it had been decided by party consensus that Mr. Khan should concentrate more on Punjab and couldn’t spare the two days of July 21 and 22 for Karachi and Hyderabad.
PTI was already well-established in the two cities
He asserted that the PTI was already well-established in the two cities and that important party figures, like Asad Umar, Murad Saeed, Ali Muhammad Khan, and Qasim Khan Suri, were already present to motivate the workforce and create momentum.
Although PTI leaders and lawmakers in Karachi remained steadfast in their support of the party’s justification for Mr. Khan’s canceled visit, they sounded incredibly upset and unconvinced by the justification.
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A Sindhi MNA for the PTI stated, “It undermines the momentum. Clearly, that hurts the campaign. Not just Karachi-level workers and leaders are involved. It’s more about the millions of people who anticipated his presence here just days before the election. We anticipated that the chairman’s back-to-back rallies and speeches would convert this energy into votes and result in a straightforward victory for the party.
Another lawmaker refrained from expressing their displeasure out loud, but they both agreed that the local government election campaign would not be able to attract the “last sixer,” which would have increased turnout and attracted PTI voters out of their homes on election day.
“As a rough plan, Mr. Khan had to address a rally on the evening of July 21 in District Central (Karachi), followed by fireworks, and then the following day [on July 22], he had to wonder about the city to deliver addresses at least three significant locations,” he stated. “Young voters were fired up, and grassroots workers were fired up. They are not deserving of this.”
Critics claim that the PTI’s decision to postpone Mr. Khan’s visit proved their claim that he “is indifferent to Karachi” and “least cares about the business capital,” as the PTI was the only party to win the heaviest mandate in Karachi with 14 MNAs and over 20 MPAs following the 2018 general elections.
“Imran Khan continues to support my assertions, which are exactly what I have been stating for a long. Lahore and the rest of Punjab are more important to him than Karachi,” according to a PTI critic and social media activist who tweeted the news of the party’s decision to postpone Mr. Khan’s visit.