ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will conduct by-elections on 21 national and provincial seats on Sunday, state-run media reported on Saturday, marking the country’s first major electoral exercise since the contentious general elections of Feb. 8. 

The by-elections would be held on the national and provincial assembly seats that were vacated by candidates following the Feb. 8 elections. 

Polling on Sunday is scheduled to be held on five National Assembly seats, 12 Punjab Assembly seats, two Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly seats and two Balochistan Assembly seats. 

“Polling will start at 8:00 in the morning and it will continue till 5:00 p.m. without any break,” Radio Pakistan said. 

Polling for NA-8 Bajaur and PK-22 Bajaur were postponed on Feb. 8 after the murder of a candidate, Rehan Zeb Khan. Polling will also be held in NA-44 Dera Ismail Khan, where the National Assembly seat was vacated by Ali Amin Gandapur, who retained his provisional assembly seat to become KP’s chief minister. 

Similarly, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif vacated her NA-119 seat in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore, choosing instead to keep the PP-159 constituency that she also won. 

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif won elections on two provincial and National Assembly seats. He left the NA-132 Kasur and Lahore’s PP-158 and PP-164 seats vacant, preferring to retain the NA-123 Lahore constituency. 

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari won two National Assembly seats. He retained the NA-194 Larkana constituency, leaving the NA-196 seat in Qamber Shahdadkot vacant.

Pakistan’s Feb. 8 elections were marred by delayed results, a countrywide shutdown of mobile phone services and rigging allegations. Jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) accused Pakistan’s election regulator of manipulating the results of the elections, claiming in reality it had won over 180 National Assembly seats. 

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) rejected the PTI’s allegations, saying polling results were delayed due to the shutdown of mobile phone services countrywide. Pakistan’s caretaker administration had said the mobile services were suspended due to security reasons, rejecting rigging allegations by Khan’s party.

Independent candidates backed by Khan secured the highest number of seats in the National Assembly. However, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) emerged as the largest party in the National Assembly, as a court decision prevented Khan-backed candidates from contesting polls with the PTI’s symbol. 

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s foreign office spokesperson on Saturday rejected Washington’s move to impose sanctions on four international firms for providing missile-applicable items to its ballistic missile program, saying Islamabad is against the “political use” of export controls. 

In a press release issued late Friday, the US State Department announced sanctions against three Chinese companies and one Belarus-based firm on charges they supplied items to Pakistan’s ballistic missile program.

The companies listed by the US for sanctions are the China-based Xi’an Longde Technology Development Company Limited, Tianjin Creative Source International Trade Co. Ltd, Granpect Company Limited and Belarus-based Minsk Wheel Tractor Plant.

Pakistan’s foreign office spokesperson responded by saying that commercial entities have been sanctioned in the past on allegations of having links to Pakistan’s ballistic missile program “without sharing any evidence whatsoever.”

“Pakistan rejects political use of export controls,” the foreign office spokesperson said in a statement. It added that the same jurisdictions that claim to exercise non-proliferation controls have waived off licensing requirements for advanced military technologies for some countries.

“This is leading to arms build up; accentuating regional asymmetries, and undermining the objectives of non-proliferation and of regional and global peace and security,” it said. 

The statement said Islamabad had repeatedly pointed out that such items have legitimate civil commercial uses, urging Washington to avoid “arbitrary application of export controls.”

“There is need for discussions between concerned parties for an objective mechanism to ensure access to technology in pursuit of socio-economic development,” the spokesperson said.

“Pakistan has always been ready to discuss end-use and end-user verification mechanisms so that legitimate commercial users are not hurt by discriminatory application of export controls.”

The sanctions mean all property and interests in property of the companies in the US or in possession or control of American citizens are blocked and must be reported to the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the State Department has said.

They also mean that all transactions by American citizens, or those within (or transiting) the US that involve any property or interests in property of the companies, are prohibited unless authorized by a general or specific license issued by OFAC.