The results of Pakistan’s by-elections are in. And halfway into its 100-day programme, the ruling PTI may have suffered an unexpected jolt. For while the party just about managed to hang on to its slim parliamentary majority – it did so with a loss of two seats. Sunday’s vote represented a race for 24 seats across the four provincial assemblies and 11 in the National Assembly. The PTI secured four NA seats. To add insult to injury, the incumbents lost two of the four constituencies originally won by Imran Khan this summer. All of which was good news for the PMLN. The party of deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, which enjoys the second largest parliamentary presence, retains its hold in the Punjab. Despite all rumoured efforts to the contrary. For the PMLN took home four seats, one of which was bagged by former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as he made a return to parliamentary politics; after being temporarily disqualified in the summer. This was a much-needed respite for the PMLN given that party president Shehbaz Sharif was arrested days before the by-elections and presently remains removed from the electoral process. The de facto party supremo Nawaz Sharif, a thrice-elected PM, was barred from voting in the absence of his national identity card. The signal is clear: PMLN is down but not out as it settles into the role of effective opposition. Not least because the latter trounced the PTI in its traditional of stronghold of the Punjab where it secured six seats as compared to the PTI’s five. The PPP also won on its home turf by winning two provincial seats there. And while Khan’s party held on to its majority in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the ANP had reason for bittersweet celebration. For Samar Bilour carried the flag for her late husband Haroon who had been killed in a Taliban suicide attack in the run up the general elections, to claim the seat that he had been scheduled to contest. With the religious right more or less out of the game – the 11-party coalition MMA took home just one National Assembly seat – the by-elections were ostensibly played out between the PTI and PMLN. * Published in Daily Times, October 16th 2018.