Web Desk (LTN NEWS): By-elections will be held on September 25 for the nine seats that became empty when PTI lawmakers quit. PTI chairman and former Prime Minister Imran Khan decided on Friday to run alone for all nine seats that became empty when the National Assembly speaker accepted their resignations.
After the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) announced the by-elections on September 25, the PTI chairman made his decision public.
The PTI chairman’s decision to run for all of the open NA seats has made the by-elections more important than they would have been otherwise.
The decision to run for the nine NA seats became public when the PTI’s official Twitter account and several party leaders tweeted about it, hours after the ECP made its announcement.
As soon as the decision was made public, there were a lot of comments on social media.
They included who the government would choose as its joint candidates for the nine seats and whether it would be brave enough to accept Imran’s challenge and name only one heavyweight candidate for all nine constituencies.
Some others, though, asked what would happen if Imran’s nomination papers were turned down for technical reasons, which would give the government a clear advantage.
In 2018, Imran made history when he won five seats in the National Assembly. Imran had beaten powerful politicians like Saad Rafique of the PML-N in Lahore (NA-131) and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who had been prime minister, in Islamabad (NA-53).
He had also won in Bannu (NA-35), Karachi (NA-243), and Mianwali, where he was born and raised (NA-95).
After the party chief was kicked out of the office of prime minister in April of this year, 131 PTI MNAs turned in their resignations. The ECP accepted 11 of those resignations.
According to the ECP’s schedule, the candidates can turn in their nomination papers from August 10 to 13.
By August 14, the ECP will put out a final list of all the candidates who have been nominated. They will be checked by the people in charge of elections until August 17, and candidates have until August 20 to file their appeals. On August 25, the ECP will decide on the complaints against the candidates, and on August 26, the final list of candidates will be shown.
On August 29, the symbols will be given to the candidates.
It said that by-elections would be held in NA-22 Mardan-III, NA-24 Charsadda-II, NA-31 Peshawar-V, NA-45 Kurram-I, NA-108 Faisalabad VIII, NA-118 Nankana Sahib- II, NA-237 Malir- II, NA-239 Korangi Karachi- I, and NA-246 Karachi South I.
Speaker of the National Assembly Raja Pervez Ashraf accepted the resignations of 11 PTI members on July 28. This was exactly 109 days after they quit their seats.
Under Article 64-1 of the Constitution, the NA speaker accepted the resignations of several key PTI leaders, such as former human rights minister Shireen Mazari, former interior minister Ijaz Ahmed Shah, former minister of state for parliamentary affairs Ali Muhammad Khan, and former minister of state for information and broadcasting Farrukh Habib.
Fazal Muhammad Khan, Shaukat Ali, Fakhar Zaman Khan, Jamil Ahmed Khan, Muhammad Akram Cheema, Abdul Shakoor Shad, and Shandana Gulzar Khan are the other PTI lawmakers whose resignations have been accepted.
Mazari and Shandana were both elected to seats set aside for women from the provinces of Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
Article 64 (vacant seats) says, “A member of the Majlis-e-Shoora parliament may resign from his seat by writing to the speaker or, if the speaker is absent, to the chairman. His seat will then become vacant.”
The Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly, 2007, said that the resignations were accepted after the requirements were met.
