ISLAMABAD: A day after the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) was upset on multiple seats in the first phase of local government elections held in Khyber Pakhtun­khwa, Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday said his party “made mistakes” as he pinned the blame of a lackluster poll performance on “wrong candidate selection”.

To make sure the mistakes are not repeated, the prime minister said, he would “personally oversee” the party strategy for the second phase of the elections scheduled to be held next month.

“PTI made mistakes in [the] first phase of KP LG elections and paid the price,” he tweeted. “Wrong candidate selection was a major cause.

“From now on I will personally be overseeing PTI’s LG election strategy in [the] second phase of KP LG elections & LG elections across Pakistan.”

Meanwhile, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry has urged PTI leadership and workers to set aside their differences and unite under PM Imran’s leadership.

“If the PTI is weakened at this time then the country will fall to the wolves,” Chaudhry tweeted.

On the other hand, PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif termed the PTI’s poor performance “an expression of people’s anger over the back-breaking inflation, crushing price hike and the meltdown of governance”.

“The people of KP have rejected the PTI […] It is the beginning of the end of an experiment that has cost the nation dearly,” he added.