LAHORE, Feb 27: Mian Nawaz Sharif, former prime minister and leader of his own faction of Pakistan Muslim League, termed the victory of the ruling PML candidate in the Lahore by-election on Sunday as yet another case of denial of popular verdict.

This is a day of defeat of the dictatorship in the country and the people's pressure would soon force our the dictator, the exiled PML leader said in a telephonic address to an ARD-MMA rally which had blocked the Lower Mall Road after refusing to accept the results of the NA-127 by-election.

"I would soon be among my people, the days of dictatorship are numbered," he said. The dictators, he said, had a history of defying popular verdicts and the present regime had done the same. People's victory in the NA-127, he alleged, had been stolen through a conspiracy, but such tactics would not last long, he declared.