"The rule of an easy election win is that a victory must appear to have been achieved before the numbers come in on election day," writes Asha’ar Rehman in his article published earlier this month.

There were many aspirants for the ticket from the NA-124 constituency — left vacant by Hamza Shahbaz when he opted to retain his Punjab Assembly seat — but eventually it was revealed that the N-League’s top leadership had prevailed upon Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to compete for the honours.

"The PTI needs to ask whether it could have done better than the candidate it has put up against the PML-N in NA-124. It is very unusual for a ruling party, with governments in both Lahore and Islamabad, to allow an impression that it is half-heartedly contesting a by-election so soon after coming to power."

Read the full piece here.