By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan on Friday announced to contest an election on all nine National Assembly seats that fell vacant after his party’s lawmakers resigned.
At least 123 lawmakers of PTI had tendered resignation en masse on April 11, two days after Khan was ousted through a no-confidence vote.
But the speaker Raja Ashraf accepted the resignation of only 11 of them on July 28, leading to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) announcing that the by-election on nine would be held on September 25.
Two lawmakers were indirectly elected and no election is required for their seats.
The PTI leaders whose resignations were accepted and who were also de-notified as lawmakers by the ECP, included Ali Muhammad Khan, Fazal Muhammad Khan, Shaukat Ali, Fakhar Zaman Khan, Farrukh Habib, Jamil Ahmed Khan, Muhammad Akram Cheema, Abdul Shakoor Shad, Dr Shireen Mazari, Shandana Gulzar Khan and Ijaz Ahmed Shah. Dr Mazari and Shandana Khan had been elected on reserved seats for women.
The PTI said Khan has decided to “personally contest elections from the nine constituencies”. There is no legal bar on a person to contest elections on the number of seats.
However, after the elections, the elected person can retain only one seat and the ECP is bound to hold elections on the other seats within 60 days.
The nine constituencies where by-elections will be held on Sept 25 are NA-22 Mardan, NA-24 Charsadda, NA-31 Peshawar, NA-45 Kurram, NA-108 Faisalabad, NA-118 Nankana Sahib, NA-237 Malir, NA-239 Korangi Karachi and NA-246 Karachi South.
According to the ECP, candidates could submit their nomination papers between Aug 10 and 13, which would be scrutinised by Aug 17, while election symbols would be issued to the candidates on Aug 29. The last date to decide appeals against the acceptance and rejection of nomination papers, by the appellate tribunal, is Aug 25.
Separately, PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry said the party would hold a rally in the capital of Islamabad within the next 48 hours and it would give a deadline to the government to dissolve assemblies and hold fresh elections.
“We will give the deadline and if the government refuses to dissolve assemblies within that period, then we will announce a future course of action,” he said, adding that a maximum of one month would be given as a deadline.
The development showed the deepening of Pakistan’s political crisis that was set in motion in April when Khan’s government was toppled.
The current assembly would complete its allotted five-year tenure in August next year but Khan and his PTI are determined to force snap polls.
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