Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif congratulated PML-N candidates on Monday for their overwhelming win in yesterday’s by-polls, which were held amid an election boycott by the opposition PTI in all constituencies except for two, low voter turnout and rigging allegations.

According to provisional results, the PML-N won all six National Assembly (NA) seats and six of seven Punjab Assembly seats up for grabs. One provincial seat was won by the PPP, which fielded its candidates in only three of the 13 constituencies.

Most of these seats were vacated following the disqualification of PTI members due to their convictions in May 9 cases.

In separate but similar statements, PM Shehbaz congratulated the PML-N candidates for their victories in NA-18 (Haripur), NA-96 and NA-104 (Faisalabad), NA-185 (Dera Ghazi Khan), PP-73 (Sargodha), PP-87 (Mianwali), and Faisalabad’s PP-98, PP-116 and PP-115.

The statements issued by the PM’s Office said the premier congratulated the candidates for their “brilliant success”.

The statements quoted him as saying that the PML-N’s success in the by-polls was a result of party supremo Nawaz Sharif’s vision and “exemplary leadership”, as well as the hard work of party workers.

“The success in the by-elections reflects public trust in Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz’s hard work for the progress of people of the province,” he said, adding that the public had expressed confidence in the PML-N during the by-polls.

“The success in elections is a reflection of the public confidence in the government’s performance,” he reiterated.

Separately, he mentioned the PML-N’s win in NA-143 (Sahiwal), PP-203 (Sahiwal) and NA-129 (Lahore), saying that the people expressed confidence in the “PML-N’s objectives of development, stability, and public welfare” during the by-elections.

Here, too, he credited Nawaz’s leadership and Maryam’s hard work for these wins.

Nawaz himself also offered congratulations to the party’s winners.

PTI alleges polling discrepancies in Haripur

On Monday morning, the provisional results for NA-18 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Haripur were also issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), according to which PML-N’s Babar Nawaz Khan secured victory with 163,996 votes.

The Form-47 for the constituency — the provisional consolidated statement of results for vote count of all polling stations prepared by the returning officer (RO) concerned — showed that PTI-backed independent candidate Shehrnaz Omar Ayub was the first runner-up with 120,220 votes.

Shehrnaz is the wife of PTI’s Omar Ayub, who was the NA opposition leader. The seat had fallen vacant following Ayub’s disqualification.

Shehrnaz had contested the polls against PML-N’s Nawaz and PPP’s Irum Fatima Turk with the “kettle” symbol. While Ayub and former MPA Momina Basit had been campaigning for her, Shehrnaz herself abstained from appearing in public meetings.

Speaking to reporters today, Ayub rejected the results and said he would challenge them before a court tribunal and launch a series of peaceful protests.

“The returning officer (RO) stole our election,” he alleged, asserting that his wife was ahead of her PML-N rival by over 27,000 votes from over 500 polling stations.

The PTI leader said that their candidate’s results were changed: “We have the Form-45s of all polling stations but the results compiled by the RO and displayed on screen were totally different.”

In an earlier video statement, Ayub had said that the RO was “refusing to accept the original Form-45s and saying he will only acknowledge the forms brought to him”.

“They have prepared duplicate Form-45s,” Ayub alleged.

Senior PTI leader and former NA speaker Asad Qaiser also “rejected” the by-election results in a statement and termed the voting process “fraudulent and ridden by rigging”.

He described the by-polls as a “flagrant violation of the constitutional rules for conducting the voting process in the country”.

Qaiser said the handling of the by-election reflected “open rigging and has once again exposed its dark face before the nation“.

In a separate post on X, Qaiser claimed that the Form-45s showed Shehrnaz was leading by a margin of 25,000 votes from 519 polling stations. However, the ECP staff was “uploading the wrong results on the official website”, he alleged, raising serious questions over the transparency and credibility of the electoral process.

Taking note of the low voter turnout in other constituencies, the PTI leader also claimed that the public heeded the party’s call to boycott those by-elections.

He said that reports indicated that voter turnout remained between 15 and 18 per cent, while “over 80pc of citizens rejected the polls, opting to stay home”.

Qaiser termed the elections unrepresentative and demanded that the “non-transparent” results be annulled immediately. He claimed that the present government and the ECP “failed to provide an environment” where citizens could freely choose their leadership.

The former speaker further said that practices of “abductions, arrests, intimidation, restrictions on campaigning, voter manipulation, and tampering with Form-47 are routine” for the ECP.

Yesterday, Ayub’s brother, Yusuf Ayub, accused the ECP of being biased against Shehrnaz, citing the “posting of presiding officers, other polling staff and changing our election symbol”.

Babar, who had earlier served as MNA during 2015-2018, has won the support of his party leaders, including CM Maryam’s husband, retired Captain Safdar Awan.

According to observers, Haripur’s political landscape remains dominated by patronage rather than ideology. Not a single woman in the district’s history could ever make it to the provincial or the National Assembly in a direct election.

Other by-election results

According to provisional results, PML-N candidates emerged victorious in NA-104 (Faisalabad-X), NA-129 (Lahore-XIII), NA-143 (Sahiwal-III), NA-185 (Dera Ghazi Khan-II), PP-73 (Sargodha-III), PP-87 (Mianwali-III), PP-115 (Faisalabad-XVIII), PP-116 (Faisalabad-XIX) and PP-203 (Sahiwal-VI).

The provisional results for NA-96 (Faisalabad-II) showed PML-N’s Bilal Badar Chaudhry, the brother of Minister of State for Interior Tallal Chaudhry, won the race with 93,009 votes.

He was competing against 15 aspirants, among whom independent candidate Nawab Sher bagged 43,025 votes to come out as the first runner-up.

For PP-98 (Faisalabad-I), the Form-47 showed that PML-N’s Azad Ali Tabassum had secured victory, bagging 44,388 votes and beating independent candidate Muhammad Ajmal by a margin of 9,142 ballots.

The PPP, which had contested in Haripur’s NA-18, DG Khan’s NA-185 and Muzaffargarh’s PP-269, managed to emerge victorious on the Muzaffargarh provincial seat.

The ruling PML-N had not fielded any candidate against PPP’s Alamdar Qureshi in the constituency, which was among the by-elections boycotted by the PTI, paving the way for the PPP’s win.

Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, president of the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency, said on social media platform X yesterday that if the PML-N managed to win five NA seats in these by-polls, it would “not need PPP votes for a simple majority in [the] NA in future”.

“In other words, PML-N can stay in power without PPP’s support!” the election expert added.