ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan on Sunday reiterated his demand for free and fair general elections in the country shortly after his political party won 15 seats, according to unofficial results, in by-elections held in 20 provincial assembly constituencies of Punjab.
The electoral contest was held after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) disqualified 25 lawmakers belonging to Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party for switching loyalties and voting for Hamza Shehbaz in an April election for the chief minister’s slot.
The ECP announced fresh polls on 20 general seats as five of the disqualified members were elected on reserved seats for women and religious minorities.
Khan congratulated his workers for defeating the candidates of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, saying the PTI voters had won against the entire state machinery along with biased election authorities.
“The only way forward from here is to hold fair & free elections under a credible ECP,” he said in a Twitter post. “Any other path will only lead to greater political uncertainty & further economic chaos.”
While the election commission is yet to announce the official results of the Punjab by-elections, several PML-N leaders have conceded defeat.
According to the local media, the PTI has secured 15 seats, PML-N has won four, and one seat has gone to an independent candidate.
“The PML-N should generously accept the results,” Maryam Nawaz, who spearheaded her party’s election campaign in Punjab, said in a Twitter post. “One should bow before the decision of the people.”
However, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif accused Khan of running a “sordid campaign” against state institutions ahead of the by-polls in Punjab.
“Every speech Imran [Khan] Niazi delivers shows how unfit he is to hold public office,” he wrote on Twitter. “Under his direct supervision, the PTI has run a sordid campaign to defame national institutions & thus undermine Pakistan. He is rewriting Machiavellian principles of politics in his lust for power.”
A local newspaper, Express Tribune, reported that the top PML-N leader, Nawaz Sharif, had attributed his party’s defeat in the by-polls to “difficult decisions” taken by the coalition government after the PTI administration was driven out of power in a no-confidence vote in April.
It added that Sharif had also called an “emergency meeting of the party to discuss the future course of action” in the context of the recent election results.
Punjab has traditionally been a stronghold of the ruling PML-N party.
The outcome of the recent by-polls in the province will also determine the fate of its newly elected chief minister, Hamza Sharif, in the coming days.