ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has announced by-elections on 33 parliamentary seats on March 16, it said on Friday, days after de-notifying dozens of lawmakers of former prime minister Imran Khan's party.
Khan’s party had quit the National Assembly, the lower house of Pakistan parliament, en masse after he was driven out of power last April in a parliamentary vote of no-confidence, but Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf did not accept the resignations and said he needed to individually verify if the lawmakers were resigning of their own accord.
In a surprise move, however, Ashraf, who is a close Sharif ally, earlier this month accepted long pending resignations of 35 PTI lawmakers, after which the ECP de-notified them. Last Friday, another 35 resignations were accepted by the speakers. The speaker reportedly accepted 43 more resignations on January 24, but the ECP has yet to de-notify those members.
"In pursuance of Section 57 of the Elections Act, 2017... the Election Commission hereby calls upon electors of the under-mentioned Constituencies of National Assembly of Pakistan, which have become vacant due to resignations and specifies in relation thereto the following dates for by-elections," the ECP said in a notification on Friday.
The election regulation announced by-polls in eight NA constituencies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, three in Islamabad, 12 in Punjab, nine in Sindh and in one constituency in Balochistan.
Candidates can file their nomination papers from February 6 till February 8, according to the ECP. After verification of nominations, candidates would be able to withdraw their candidatures by February 22.
The ECP said it would allot election symbols to candidates and political parties on February 23.
The developments follow Khan's January 14 announcement that his party would “test” PM Sharif by asking him to prove his majority in the lower house of parliament.
If the ECP de-notifies the remaining 43 PTI lawmakers, Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party would be virtually wiped out of the National Assembly. This means the PTI will be challenged in terms of numbers if it asks Sharif to take a trust vote from parliament.
Earlier this month, Khan’s PTI also dissolved the provincial assemblies in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces — where his party ruled and now caretaker governments have taken charge of the affairs — in a bid to force the Sharif government to call nationwide snap polls, which are otherwise scheduled for late this year.
Khan has been campaigning for nationwide snap polls since being ousted from power.