ECP suspends by-polls on 27 NA seats

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Friday issued a notification, suspending the election schedule for 27 National Assembly constituencies in Punjab, in the wake of the Lahore High Court (LHC) decision to approve the resignations of the MNAs till further orders.

The notification also pertains to five NA reserved seats of women in the Punjab province and names of legislatures are: Aliya Hamza Malik, Kanwal Shauzab, Andleeb Abbas, Asma Hameed and Maleeka Ali Bokhari. However, NA-52, 53, 54, which are located within the limits of Islamabad, will continue election activities there. The by-election will be held on March 16, as the court verdict does not apply to these constituencies of the federal capital.

Separately, the ECP also de-notified Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan as a member of the National Assembly (MNA) from six out of seven constituencies, from where he emerged victorious in the by-elections, held in October 2022. The ECP declared six NA seats vacant under Article 223 (2) of the Constitution including NA-22 (Mardan), NA-24 (Charsadda), NA-31 (Peshawar), NA-108 (Faisalabad), NA-118 (Nankana Sahib), NA-239 (Korangi), which ex-premier had won in the bye-elections.

Later on, he secured another seat from NA-45 (Kurram) on October 30, which he will now retain under the law, as Article 223 (1) of the Constitution, says that no individual can hold more than one seat in any house of parliament at the same time.

The related article says, “Nothing in clause (1) shall prevent a person from being a candidate for two or more seats at the same time, whether in the same body or in different bodies, but if he is elected to more than one seat he shall, within a period of thirty days after the declaration of the result for the last such seat, resign all but one of his seats, and if he does not so resign, all the seats to which he has been elected shall become vacant at the expiration of the said period of thirty days except the seat to which he has been elected last or, if he has been elected to more than one seat on the same day, the seat for election to which his nomination was filed last”.

The notification of PTI chairman’s victory from the seven NA constituencies was issued on January 19, after the Election Commission condoned delay in submission of election expenses, being a legal requirement for victory mortification. Under the law, the time of one month for Imran to decide which seat he wants to keep has expired last week, and all seven seats, except for the last seat he won from Kurram, were supposed to be declared vacant by the ECP days ago.