LAHORE, July 21: In an effort to sound nonchalant towards the NA-151 by-poll results, the PML-N is saying that it does not need to ‘waste its energies’ at a time when the general election is round the corner.

“The party is presently focussing on the general election and this is why it did not bother to field its own candidate in the Multan by-poll,” PML-N media coordinator Muhammad Mehdi told Dawn here on Saturday.

“Because not much time is left for the election, the party thought it inappropriate to exhaust its own and its nominee’s energies in a contest whose result is not going to have any impact on the national political scenario.”

Asked, why did the party then spend ‘time and energies’ in previous by-polls in Multan and elsewhere, Mr Mehdi said that because in those elections the PML-N had fielded its own candidates, it had to take part in the election process fully.

Yousuf Raza Gilani’s son, Abdul Qadir Gilani, won the NA-151 by-poll, though with a small margin, defeating independent candidate Shaukat Bosan. The seat stood vacated after the former premier was disqualified as parliamentarian by the Supreme Court for contempt of court.

Asked if Abdul Qadir’s win had helped create an impression that people had rejected the court’s verdict, he said the courts’ job was to give honest and truthful judgments irrespective of public opinion.

He said the masses were taking the verdict seriously as was evident from the sharp decline in the PPP’s vote bank despite billions of rupees spent from national kitty by the former prime minister on his constituency.

He claimed that the court verdicts would have a huge impact on the general election results.

Meanwhile, European Parliament member Salvador sedo’i Alabart called on Mr Mehdi here on Saturday and discussed with him ties between Pakistan and the European Union.

Mr Alabart said the European Union was minutely observing the political situation in Pakistan and it wanted to see a stable democracy here due to the geopolitical importance of the country in the region.

He lauded the steps taken by the Election Commission of Pakistan to strengthen electoral norms and assured all possible support in implementing electoral reforms and strengthening democracy.

He expressed his resolve to further develop the European Union linkages with the democratic institutions in Pakistan.