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The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday announced the schedule for by-elections on 33 National Assembly seats vacated after the acceptance of resignations by Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, setting March 16 as the polling date.
The NA seats fell vacant earlier this month when Ashraf accepted the resignations of 34 Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers and Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rashid. He subsequently accepted the resignations of 78 more PTI lawmakers, but the schedule for by-polls on these has yet to be issued.
According to the ECP, it would conduct by-polls in NA-4 (Swat-III); NA-17 (Haripur-I); NA-18 (Swabi-I); NA-25 (Nowshera-I); NA-26 (Nowshera-II); NA-32 (Kohat); NA-38 (D.I. Khan-I); NA-43 (Khyber-I); NA-52 (Islamabad-I); NA-53 (Islamabad-II); NA-54 (Islamabad-III); NA-57 (Rawalpindi-I); NA-59 (Rawalpindi-III); NA-60 (Rawalpindi-IV); NA-62 (Rawalpindi-VI); NA-63 (Rawalpindi-VII); NA-67 (Jhelum-II); NA-97 (Bhakkar-I); NA-126 (Lahore-IV); NA-130 (Lahore-VIII); NA-155 (Multan-I); NA-156 (Multan-III); NA-191 (D.G. Khan-III); NA-241 (Korangi, Karachi-III); NA-242 (Karachi East-I); NA-243 (Karachi East-II); NA-244 (Karachi East-III); NA-247 (Karachi South-II); NA-250 (Karachi West-III); NA-252 (Karachi West-V); NA-254 (Karachi Central-II); NA-256 (Karachi Central-IV); NA-265 (Quetta II).
The electoral watchdog said candidates would be able to file their nomination papers between Feb. 6-8 and their names would be published on Feb. 9 after which returning officers (RO) would conduct scrutiny of their nomination papers till Feb. 13. Per the schedule unveiled by the ECP, the last date to file appeals against a RO’s decision to accept or reject nominations would be Feb. 16, with appellate tribunals to decide all appeals by Feb. 20. The final, revised list of contesting candidates would be published on Feb. 21.
The last date to withdraw candidacy would be Feb. 22, with election symbols to be allotted on Feb. 23 and polls to take place on March 16.
The PTI has, thus far, hinted at its chief Imran Khan contesting all the vacated seats in his personal capacity. Meanwhile, the ruling coalition—barring the MQM and PPP—have hinted that they would not participate, as there would be too few months remaining in the constitutional term of Parliament to justify the expense and efforts required. The MQM, however, has vowed to contest all seats in Karachi, while the PPP has said it would take a decision after consultations.
The PTI resigned en masse from the National Assembly in April after the ouster of Imran Khan through a vote of no-confidence. While the resignations were initially accepted by then-deputy speaker Qasim Suri, Ashraf reopened them by saying proper processes had not been followed and he needed to individually verify each resignation.
In July, he accepted 11 resignations, but the remainder were not accepted until this month. Thus far, the resignations of 123 PTI MNAs have been accepted and all have been de-notified by the ECP. The PTI, last week, had attempted to withdraw the resignations but Ashraf proceeded with accepting them and rejected their overtures.