Islamabad: In light of the rulings rendered by the high courts in Islamabad, Peshawar, Sindh, and Balochistan, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Sunday suspended the election schedule for 37 National Assembly (NA) seats that had become vacant following the resignation of PTI lawmakers. Announcing by-elections for 33 NA seats on March 16 on January 27, the ECP.
The commission announced on February 3 that by-elections for an additional 31 NA seats would be held on March 19. However, earlier this month, the by-elections in their respective provinces were suspended by the high courts of Peshawar, Sindh, and Balochistan, and the de-notification of three PTI leaders was put on hold by the Islamabad High Court (IHC).
In four separate notifications issued on Sunday, the electoral watchdog said that until further orders from the relevant courts, it was suspending the election schedule for one NA seat in Balochistan, three in Islamabad, nine in Sindh and 24 in KP.
This includes the following constituencies:
Swat-I, NA-02 NASWAT-II, NA-03 Swat-III NA-04 Upper Dir-I NA-05 Upper Dir-II NA-06 Lower Dir-I NA-07 Lower Dir-II NA-08 Lower Dir-II NA-09 Malakand Protected Area NA-09 Buner NA-16 Abbottabad-II NA-17 Haripur-I NA-18 Swabi-I NA-19 Swabi-II NA-20 Mardan-I NA-25 Nowshera-I NA-26 Nowshera-II NA-30 Peshawar-IV NA-32 Ko The Karak NA-38 D 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 I Khan I NA-40 Bajaur I NA-42 Mohmand I NA-43 Khyber I NA-44 Khyber I NA-44 Khyber I NA-44 Islamabad I NA-53 Islamabad II NA-54 Islamabad III NA-24 Quetta-II Karachi Central-II NA-256 Karachi Central-IV NA-265
The NA seats were vacated after Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf swiftly moved to accept the resignations of PTI lawmakers, pending since April 2022, in an apparent bid to scuttle the opposition’s purported plan to bring a confidence motion agai¬nst Prime Minister Shehbaz Sha¬rif.
After stalling the process for eight months, the NA speaker accepted the resignations of 34 PTI MNAs on Jan 17 and 35 MNAs on Jan 20, including Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rashid. On Jan 25, the ECP de-notified 43 more PTI lawmakers after Ashraf accepted their resignations, following with the PTI had approached the courts.
On March 1, the Islamabad High Court had suspended the de-notification of three PTI lawmakers — Asad Umar, Ali Nawaz Awan and Raja Khurram Shehzad — and sought a reply from the ECP and NA.
A day later, the Balochistan High Court had stopped the ECP from holding the by-election in NA-265, Quetta, along with suspending the ECP’s de-notification of PTI leader Qasim Suri.
On March 3, the Peshawar High Court suspended the notification for by-elections on 24 NA seats from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Earlier this week, the Sindh High Court restrained the ECP from holding by-elections on nine NA seats and suspended the commission’s notification in this regard till April 25.
