Daily Times

Following PTI’s landslide victory in the hotly contested Punjab by-polls on Sunday, party chairman Imran Khan said the only way forward was “free and fair elections.”

In a tweet, the former prime minister renewed his demand for fair and free elections in wake of his party’s performance in Punjab by-elections. “Any other path will only lead to greater political uncertainty & further economic chaos,” he said.

A battle for the throne of Punjab was fought as voting was held for 20 constituencies of the province. The PTI managed to grab majority of seats, defeating PML-N, which has been in power for a very long time.

As results started pouring in, Khan took to his Twitter to reiterate his demand for early elections. “The only way forward from here is to hold fair [and] free elections under a credible ECP.”

Imran Khan also thanked the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) workers and voters of Punjab for coming out in unprecedented numbers to defeat the entire state machinery and cast their vote.

Shortly after unofficial results of the Punjab by-elections showed PTI comfortably winning at least 16-17 seats, the PTI chairman, in a tweet on Sunday night, said PTI voters did not only defeat the PML-N candidates but the entire state machinery, especially police harassment and a totally biased Election Commission of Pakistan. He also thanked the allies of PTI including PML-Q, MWM and the Sunni Ittehad Council.

Meanwhile, PTI leader and former information and law minister Fawad Chaudhry urged all the political parties to sit together and address the widening gap of trust. “We should not stay in a state of war always,” he said. “The best solution is fresh elections.”

Fawad maintained that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif should announce a date for general elections.

A charged PTI saw a “change in Pakistan” after the party took a major lead in the Punjab by-elections – the polls that will decide who holds the reigns in the country’s biggest province. “Soon, Pakistan will witness a change […] Hamza Shahbaz’s fake government has ceased to exist,” PTI leader Hammad Azhar said in an address to party workers in Lahore.

In a separate press conference, PTI Secretary-General Asad Umar said that all the pre-poll surveys had pointed towards his party’s victory in today’s by-elections.

“PTI will win at least 16 seats. This isn’t PTI’s victory, this is the nation’s victory,” the former minister for planning, development, and special initiatives said.

The ex-federal minister said that people will not allow anyone to make decisions related to their fate behind closed doors as he stressed that these election results would change Pakistan’s politics.

“Pervez Elahi will become the chief minister on July 22,” Umar said while referring to the date when the elections for Punjab’s top office will take place in line with Supreme Court’s orders.

Umar said PTI Chairman Imran Khan might not hold an address on Sunday as he will first summon a core committee meeting of the party’s leadership on Monday to decide the future course of action. “Imran Khan does not prefer coming to the fore when he secures a victory,” he said while asking party workers to stay on guard till the final results come in.

Umar said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is now the premier of Islamabad and stressed that the only solution for Pakistan to move forward now is early general polls. “It is not only in the favour of PTI, but PML-N as well,” the former federal minister said.