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Bilawal Bhutto Zardari's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has secured a win in the Umerkot by-polls, according to preliminary results.
Citing unofficial and unverified results, ARY News has reported that PPP candidate Ameer Ali Shah has secured 55,904 votes as compared to Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) leader Arbab Ghulam Rahim's 30,921 votes after a count at all polling stations in the PS-52 Umerkot constituency. Following the win, PPP leaders Bilawal Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari congratulated party officials. This verdict comes amid the fight by Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), an 11-opposition alliance party, to oust Prime Minister Imran Khan. Recently, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said that Imran Khan is under "immense pressure" from the PDM to resign by January 31. This comes as PDM is set to protest outside the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) against a foreign funding case in 2014. PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz would lead a rally from Rawalpindi on that day, said the PML-N spokesperson. "On January 19, lawyers, doctors, nurses and farmers will all have to leave their homes and join PDM (protest)," she said. Furthermore, Marriyum stated that the deadline for the resignation of the "selected government" was January 31. Last week, Bilawal had asserted that the only way to remove Imran Khan and his government was to table a no-confidence motion. He had vowed to convince the members of the PDM on the strategy, while also calling on the premier to voluntarily step down because of his "failure at all fronts," Dawn reported. "It is the only way out... We are not anarchists. We believe in democracy and legal process. This is the only way out, I think. We need to go through the parliament for every move," he said at a press conference. "We will try to bring the PDM and allied parties on one page on this option. We believe in democratic norms and this is why we always resist the role of the establishment in making or breaking governments," Bilawal added. (ANI)
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