Ahmed Mukhtar Naqshbandi
LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan will contest for all 33 National Assembly seats in the upcoming by-elections scheduled on March 16, the party has announced. With this, Imran Khan will become the first person in the country’s history to contest for such a large number of seats.
In a press conference on Sunday after the PTI core committee meeting in Lahore, PTI leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi said: “Imran Khan will be the party’s candidate for all the National Assembly constituencies that are up for grabs.”
Vacant National Assembly seats
The NA seats had fallen vacant earlier this month when NA Speaker Raja Parvez Ashraf accepted the resignations of PTI MNAs and Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rashid.
The PTI resigned en masse in April last year after the ouster of Khan as the prime minister, but only 11 resignations were accepted in July. Later, as the party tried to stage a comeback to the house, the speaker began accepting their resignations — and in a couple of days, he accepted 113 more, including the 33.
In October last year, the former prime minister also set a record when he won six NA seats for the PTI in a by-polls that was seen as a straight contest between the PTI and the current ruling coalition of the PDM parties, which also grabbed two seats.
