Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Wednesday said that the people of Punjab have voted for change in the province during the July 25 general elections. Talking to media in Islamabad, he said that there was a tough competition between three largest political parties including PTI, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in Punjab. The PTI leader said that the voters of Punjab put PML-N on a defensive, adding that the province’s voters have also rejected PPP. PTI Leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi went on to say that the poor leadership has ruined the economy and the voters do not want traditional politics. “Country’s economy and foreign affairs are facing many challenges, adding that the PTI would implement its manifesto honestly,” he said. On July 30, PTI had claimed that it had garnered enough members to form governments both in the centre and Punjab. PTI Spokesman Fawad Chaudhry had said that on the Punjab front, the House consisted of 371 members, however, owing to various factors, the Provincial Assembly was left with 358-60 members, whereas PTI’s strength was 180, including independents and women reserved seats. On July 25, millions of Pakistanis voted to elect a new government and a prime minister in peaceful elections held in a free, fair and transparent manner. Around 800,000 police and military forces were stationed at more than 85,000 polling stations across the country as the voting took place. The July 25 election was only the second democratic transition of power in Pakistan’s 70-year coup-studded history. The voting for Pakistan’s election, which took place between 8am local time to 6pm, saw more than 3,000 candidates contesting for 272 general seats of the National Assembly, while some 8,000 candidates ran for 577 general seats of the four provincial assemblies – Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. Pakistan is a country of approximately 207 million people, out of which the number of registered voters are about 106 million. Published in Daily Times, August 9th 2018.