Islamabad: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party led by former prime minister Imran Khan on Monday swept the crucial by-elections, winning six out of eight National Assembly seats and two out of three provincial assembly seats in Punjab, in another jolt to the Shehbaz Sharif government.
The main contest was between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
Eight seats of the National Assembly (NA) and three of the Punjab provincial assembly fell vacant after the PTI lawmakers resigned following the toppling of Khan's government in April.
Khan, who contested seven National Assembly seats in the crucial by-elections held on Sunday, emerged victorious in six constituencies, building forward momentum in his drive to push the six-month-old PML-N-led government into announcing an early general election.
The 70-year-old cricketer-turned-politician was defeated on a seat in Karachi by a candidate of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), which managed to clinch two National Assembly seats NA-157 Multan and NA-237 Karachi which were bagged by the PTI in the 2018 general elections.
In Multan, former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gillani's son Ali Musa Gillani defeated Meher Bano, daughter of former foreign minister and PTI leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi. This was the only NA seat where Khan did not contest the by-poll.
The Multan contest was keenly watched as it showcased the influential Gilani and Qureshi families of the city fighting for a key seat.
Apart from winning six NA seats, the PTI also won two Punjab assembly seats to further strengthen the position of its supported chief minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi.