Addressing a press conference in the federal capital, he said that the people had rejected the narrative of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). He added the PTI voters stayed away from the polling process and showed their disappointment.

He maintained that his party’s landslide victory in the by-elections was due to its successful policies of the current government. He said that the government would come up to the public expectations and provide relief to them by fixing economic woes.

Criticising PTI founder Imran Khan, he said that false statements were being made from jail to defame the country. The PTI founder’s politics of lies, hatred and hypocrisy had been rejected, he said.

The information minister’s statement came after the PML-N and its allies have swept by-elections in Punjab as they won all the national and provincial assembly seats in the province.

PML-N won both national assembly seats from Lahore and Kasur. Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) won one National Assembly (NA) seat from Qambar Shadadkot in Sindh.

Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), backed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), could win only one NA seat from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) while another NA seat in KP was won by an independent candidate.

PML-N and its allies — Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) — won 11 seats of the Punjab Assembly.

PPP, an ally of PML-N in the centre, won one provincial assembly seat from Rahim Yar Khan. PML-N also won one provincial assembly seat from Balochistan.

PTI president and SIC candidate Pervaiz Ealhi lost to his nephew and PML-Q candidate Musa Elahi. The latter won the by-election in Gujrat by taking 71,357 against Pervaiz Elahi who could secure 37,106 votes only. Pervaiz Elahi’s son Moonis Elahi also lost the election in Lahore.

PTI-backed SIC won one provincial assembly seat in KP while another provincial assembly seat was won by an independent candidate.