Lahore ( Pakistan ) (AFP) - Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan again called for early elections Monday, after his party took control of the local parliament in elections held Sunday in Punjab, the country's most populous state.

These by-elections included the selection of 20 new local deputies and constituted a test of the popularity of the former international cricket star, whose government was toppled by a vote of no confidence last April.

His party, the Insaf Movement, won 15 seats, while the Pakistan Muslim League party, led by the current Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, was satisfied with four seats, and the last seat was won by an independent candidate.

Sunday's poll is seen as a precursor to national legislative elections, which are scheduled to take place in October next year, although Khan has been calling for an early vote since his government was toppled.

"The only way forward from now on is free and transparent elections. Any other path will lead to more political uncertainty and more economic chaos," Khan wrote in a tweet Monday after the results were released in Punjab state.

Since his exit from power, Khan has held rallies that attracted thousands, delivering long speeches in which he asserted that a conspiracy led by the United States imposed the current government.

And he blames the local government for the sharp rise in inflation, although most analysts agree that Sharif inherited the economic crisis in the country, which is likely to ease with the signing of an agreement last week with the International Monetary Fund to implement the aid plan worth 7.2 billion dollars.

And the Pakistani newspapers saw that the results of the poll in Punjab came as a result of the economic difficulties in the country, which spends about half of its revenues on servicing the external debt.

In order to achieve the conditions of the IMF, Sharif was forced to remove fuel subsidies, which increased prices by 50% in less than two months.

With the results of the elections in Punjab, it is expected that the short period of rule of Hamza Sharif, the son of the Pakistani prime minister, at the head of the state government will end.