Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Sunday suspended the election schedule for 37 National Assembly (NA) seats — which had fallen vacant after the resignation of PTI lawmakers — in light of the orders issued by the Islamabad, Peshawar, Sindh and Balochistan high courts.
On Jan 27, the ECP had announced by-elections for 33 NA seats on March 16. On February 3, the commission said by-elections for another 31 NA seats would take place on March 19.
But earlier this month, the high courts of Peshawar, Sindh and Balochistan had suspended by-elections in their respec-tive provinces while the Islamabad High Court (IHC) had suspended the de-notification of three PTI leaders.
In four separate notifications issued on Sunday, the electoral watchdog said that until further orders from the relevant courts, it was suspending the election schedule for one NA seat in Balochistan, three in Islamabad, nine in Sindh and 24 in KP.
The NA seats were vacated after Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf swiftly moved to accept the resignations of PTI lawmak-ers, pending since April 2022, in an apparent bid to scuttle the opposition’s purported plan to bring a confidence mo-tion against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
After stalling the process for eight months, the NA speaker accepted the resignations of 34 PTI MNAs on Jan 17 and 35 MNAs on Jan 20, including Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rashid. On Jan 25, the ECP de-notified 43 more PTI law-makers after Ashraf accepted their resignations, following with the PTI had approached the courts.
On March 1, the Islamabad High Court had suspended the de-notification of three PTI lawmakers — Asad Umar, Ali Nawaz Awan and Raja Khurram Shehzad — and sought a reply from the ECP and NA.
A day later, the Balochistan High Court had stopped the ECP from holding the by-election in NA-265, Quetta, along with suspending the ECP’s de-notification of PTI leader Qasim Suri.
On March 3, the Peshawar High Court suspended the notification for by-elections on 24 NA seats from Khyber Pakh-tunkhwa.
Earlier this week, the Sindh High Court restrained the ECP from holding by-elections on nine NA seats and suspended the commission’s notification in this regard till April 25.
