After mass resignation from Imran Khan’s party lawmakers in mid-January, the Pakistan election body is now gearing up for polls for 33 National Assembly seats, on all of which Imran Khan will throw his hat in the ring. The Election Commission of Pakistan has set the date for the polls on 33 assembly seats for 16 March. Earlier, on 17 January, the seats got vacant after assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf accepted 35 more resignations.
The announcement was made by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Sunday after a meeting of the party’s core committee in Lahore. In a presser, PTI lawmaker Shah Mahmood Qureshi said: “There was a long discussion and debate, and the party decided that it would participate in the by-polls for the 33 seats.”
Imran Khan will be the main candidate for all the 33 NA seats and as far as the legislators who were elected to those seats earlier, Qureshi said they will file their nominations as “covering candidates.” “So we have decided to take part in the polls,” he said.
Candidates running for the vacant National Assembly seats will be able to file their nominations papers from February 6 to 8. The list of the nominated candidates will be out the next day. Nomination papers will be validated till 13 February and an updated list will be issued on 21 February.
If anyone would want to step back from their candidature, they will be able to do so by the next day and a finalised list will be issued on the same day. The candidates will be allotted election symbols on February 23 and polling will be conducted on March 16.
Why did the PTI members resign?
On 11 April, 2022, 131 PTI lawmakers tendered their resignation en masse in the Parliament House in Islamabad. This came right ahead when Shehbaz Sharif was to replace Imran Khan after the latter’s ouster in a no-confidence motion. However, at the time, only 11 resignations were accepted. It was only months after without any resolution between the Speaker’s and the PTI lawmakers’ demands that on 17 January 17 the resignations of 34 PTI MNAs were accepted.
(With inputs from agencies)
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