Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz said on Monday that the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had won the recent by-elections through performance rather than political narratives, declaring that the polls were “not a by-election but a referendum” in which citizens voted for service, honesty and transparency.
Addressing a meeting of provincial ministers and secretaries in Lahore, she expressed gratitude for the party’s victory in 12 out of 13 National Assembly and Punjab Assembly seats, calling it a historic achievement for the PML-N.
According to the 24NewsHD TV channel, she added that the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had also placed their trust in the party, underscoring her view that elections are won through delivery, not slogans.
CM Maryam said the country’s development had been derailed in 2018 and argued that no narrative could be stronger than performance.
She added that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had run its campaign under the name of “prisoner number 804” yet still suffered defeat.
She remarked that both she and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had served jail terms but never boycotted elections, saying that “election boycotts occur only when defeat is certain.” She maintained that the PML-N had now regained the seats that were “taken away” from it in 2018.
Criticising PTI’s strategy in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, she said the party used government machinery during the elections there and questioned why it chose to boycott polls only in Punjab.
She added that “today there is no Faiz, no Hameed, and no judges who used to engineer election victories.”
She said the by-elections had shattered PTI’s claims of popularity, adding that Peshawar showed no signs of development and that the condition of other cities in the province was even worse.
She said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had “returned to the Stone Age” under PTI and was overwhelmed by corruption.
She noted that the people of Haripur voted for the PML-N because they saw no developmental work in the province under the previous administration.
She added that the party had earned the trust of farmers, students and the wider public, claiming that crime rates had fallen significantly in Punjab under the PML-N government after the province had been plagued by lawlessness when they assumed office.
She said even the families of political rivals admitted that they felt safer under her administration.
She added that within months of rehabilitation work, no one could say Punjab had faced a historic flood, as the province had managed relief efforts using its own resources without seeking external help.
She further stated that the government had brought smog under control within a year, ensuring that businesses and schools would no longer need to shut down because of hazardous air quality.
Maryam Nawaz said that former officials, including Lt Gen (retd) Faiz Hameed and “the dam-builder baba,” had orchestrated election interference that resulted in a man from Mianwali becoming prime minister.
She claimed that despite holding the country’s highest office, the prime minister’s own constituency remained stuck “in the Stone Age” with no development in Mianwali.
She said that while Nawaz Sharif had built the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, the former PTI prime minister had instead created what she described as the “Gogi-Pinky corridor,” a reference to alleged corruption scandals involving individuals close to him.
She criticised PTI leadership for now lamenting restricted access to meetings, recalling that she herself had not been allowed to meet her young daughter while in jail and had been informed of her mother’s death behind bars.
She added that at the time, the “full power of Faiz Hameed was behind PTI.” The chief minister said that PTI leaders were now facing the consequences of their own actions, asserting that “they are reaping what they sowed.”
Reporter Rao Dilshad Hussain