Overconfidence cost us the NA-154 by-election, says Ali Tareen

F.P. Report

LODHRAN: In his first interview after the NA-154 defeat, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Ali Tareen has said that overconfidence among workers cost his party the all important by-election in Lodhran, a PTI stronghold.

Ali Tareen lost the NA-154 by-polls to PML-N’s Peer Iqbal Shah, an election which was considered a litmus test for both the parties in the build-up to the upcoming general elections.

“Everyone, including workers and our team members, were sure that we will sweep this election, they (the workers) even used to greet us in advance,” Ali Tareen told a private television channel.

About the criticism regarding awarding ticket to him “for being Jahangir Khan Tareen’s son”, he maintained that PTI’s regional setup in Lodhran unanimously elected him for party ticket as none else was interested to contest by-polls just three months before general elections.

‘Bokhari doesn’t know how active I was in Lodhran’

Answering a question about party leader Naeem Bokhari’s criticism over his nomination, he maintained that he respects the lawyer but Bokhari perhaps doesn’t know about “how active he was in the constituency”.

“The example he gave, of Kulsoom Nawaz’s nomination (for NA-120 by-polls) is incorrect as Kulsoom Nawaz was not active in that constituency and never even spent time with the people there, I don’t know him personally and he perhaps doesn’t know how active I was in Lodhran and to add to that PTI Lodhran unanimously elected me for party ticket,” said Ali Tareen.

Weeks before the by-election, senior PTI leader Naeem Bokhari had strongly criticized his own party’s decision to award the ticket to Ali Tareen as he considers it against PTI’s principled stance against dynastic politics.