MULTAN, April 26: The Pakistan People’s Party won the PP-194 by-elections here on Thursday. The victory was described by PPP a verdict of the people in the face of the Supreme Court’s decision against Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.

According to unofficial results, Usman Bhatti received 20416 votes while his opponent, PML-N’s Mueenuddin Riaz Qureshi, secured 20097 votes.

The victory of Mr Bhatti created a festival-like situation for PPP workers in Multan.

The seat was vacated by Shahid Mehmood Khan of PML-N who, after joining Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf, resigned from his provincial assembly seat.

“The people of Multan have expressed solidarity with Prime Minister Gilani by getting elected the PPP candidate,” PPP south Punjab senior vice-president Haider Zaman Qureshi said.

Talking to Dawn, he said: “This is people’s verdict that shows that they cannot be fooled by propaganda.” He said the people of the constituency had also rejected Qureshi, a four-time ‘turncoat’, whom the PML-N had taken into its fold considering him a potential candidate on this ground.

“It is a great victory for the PPP which has proved that it is the popular party of the masses,” Mr Qureshi said.

Another PPP leader Navid Chaudhry said the people of Multan had shown that they knew the PPP leadership was being victimised. He said President Zardari was illegally detained for 11 years but nothing was established against him. “Now the politics is being played again on Swiss accounts but the elements behind it will not succeed,” he said.