ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Sunday suspended the schedule for elections on 37 National Assembly (NA) seats — which had fallen vacant following the resignation of PTI lawmakers — in light of the orders issued by the Islamabad, Sindh, Peshawar, and Balochistan high courts.
On January 27, the ECP announced by-elections for 33 National Assembly seats on March 16. On February 3, the election commission said by-elections for another 31 National Assembly seats would take place on March 19.
But in March, the high courts of Sindh, Peshawar, and Balochistan suspended by-elections in the three provinces, while the Islamabad High Court (IHC) suspended the de-notification of three PTI MNAs.
In four separate notifications issued on Sunday, ECP said that until further orders from the high courts, it was suspending the election schedule for one National Assembly seat in Balochistan, three in Islamabad, nine in Sindh, and twenty-four in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
ECP suspends by-elections on following constituencies:
The by-elections were scheduled on NA-02 Swat-I, NA-06 Lower Dir-I, NA-03 Swat-II, NA-04 Swat-III, NA-05 Upper Dir-I, NA-07 Lower Dir-II, NA-08 Malakand Protected Area, NA-09 Buner, NA-16 Abbottabad-II, NA-18 Swabi-I, NA-19 Swabi-II, NA-20 Mardan-I, NA-25 Nowshera-I, NA-26 Nowshera-II, NA-28 Peshawar-II, NA-30 Peshawar-IV, NA-17 Haripur-I, NA-32 Kohat, NA-34 Karak, NA-38 D I Khan-I, NA-40 Bajaur-I, NA-44 Khyber-II, NA-42 Mohmand, NA-43 Khyber-I, NA-52 Islamabad-I, NA-53 Islamabad-II, NA-54 Islamabad-III, NA-247 Karachi South-II, NA-241 Korangi Karachi-III, NA-243 Karachi East-II, NA-242 Karachi East-I, NA-244 Karachi East-III, NA-250 Karachi West-III, NA-252 Karachi West-V, NA-254 Karachi Central-II, NA-256 Karachi Central-IV, and NA-265 Quetta-II.
The National Assembly seats fell vacant after NA Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf swiftly moved to accept PTI MNAs’ resignations in an apparent bid to scuttle the opposition’s plan to bring a confidence motion against Prime Minister Mohammad Shehbaz Sharif.
After stalling the process for almost eight months, the National Assembly speaker accepted the resignations of 34 PTI MNAs on January 17 and 35 MNAs on January 20, including Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rashid. On January 25, the ECP de-notified 43 more PTI MNAs after Ashraf accepted their resignations, following the PTI had approach to the courts.
