KARACHI/MULTAN: PPP emerged victorious on two National Assembly seats — Karachi-Malir and Multan, as PTI faced major upset during Sunday’s by-polls held in eight NA and three provincial assembly seats.

PPP’s Syed Musa Gillani — son of former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gillani — has won Multan’s NA-157 constituency with 79,743 votes, as per unofficial results.

Musa’s opponent — PTI’s Mehar Bano Qureshi — stood second, according to the unofficial results from all 264 polling stations of the constituency.

Qureshi bagged 59,993 votes, leaving an upset for PTI on losing the coveted Multan constituency — known to have been a hot seat of political rivalry between the Gilani and Qureshi clan.

Accepting her defeat, Mehar Bano took to Twitter to thank her supporters.

“Thank you to my NA-157 family. In life you win [and] lose but I will always put prosperity of [people] first [and] to continue serving my halqa [and] party w/ honesty [and] integrity,” she wrote.

Meanwhile, PPP’s Abdul Hakeem Baloch defeated PTI Chairman Imran Khan by obtaining 32,567 votes in the by-election on the NA-237 Malir-II seat. With nearly 10,000 votes less than Baloch, Khan bagged 22,493.

Following their victory, PPP Chairman and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari took to his Twitter handle to felicitate the two leaders.

“Karachi [and] Multan, bye bye PTI! Congratulations to brother Musa Gillani [and] Hakeem Baloch for defeating Imran Khan from seats he had stolen in 2018 election,” he wrote.

In a press conference after the unofficial results were in, Yousaf told journalists that he was thankful to PPP for awarding his son the ticket and praised PML-N and the coalition alliance for supporting Musa.

“I am thankful to PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz, and PDM chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman,” the ex-prime minister said.

Gillani also slammed PTI Chairman Khan and said that his narrative had led to instability in the country.

“What’s the use of contesting elections when he [Imran Khan] has to resign from other seats,” he said, urging the people of South Punjab to reject the PTI chief’s narrative.

“This wasn’t a contest between Gillani and Qureshi clan, instead it was a fight against Khan’s narrative,” he asserted.

The former premier said that the leaders need to think about the country’s benefit and not about their parties.