Commenting on the results of the recently held by-elections in Punjab, Minister for Defence Khawaja Asif on Thursday claimed that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had strengthened its position in the province as an increase was witnessed in its vote bank, reported 24NewsHD TV channel. 

Addressing a press conference along with Minister for Finance Miftah Ismael in Islamabad, he said those 20 Punjab Assembly (PA) seats on which the by-polls were held actually belonged to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and the independent candidates. 

Reminding former prime minister and PTI Chairman Imran Khan of his anti-Pervaiz Elahi statement, Asif said it was Imran, and not he, who had called PA speaker ‘the thug of Punjab’.  

Trying to derive solace for his party (PML-N), the minister said the party’s defeat in the by-elections had nothing to do with inflation. “Nor did the masses reject the party’s narrative,” he claimed. 

Asif reiterated that the state institutions were used to rig the 2018 general elections.    

He was of the view that Aftab Sultan, who had been appointed as NAB chairman today, had a clean past.