By-polls will be held on October 9 in one National and three provincial constituencies, as previously scheduled by the polls oversight agency. When it became clear that Eid Miladun Nabi would likely fall on the same day as voting, the election supervisor changed the date.
By-Polls On 16 October:
A meeting led by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja resulted in the most recent decision to change the schedule.
As a result of Eid Miladun Nabi, the Lahore High Court (Multan Bench) also ordered the ECP to modify the election schedule.
Following the mass resignation of 131 PTI legislators on April 11, two days after ex-prime minister Imran Khan was removed from office following another no vote by the then-unified opposition and the current ruling alliance, the National Assembly seats fell vacant.
On April 16, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, the recently appointed speaker of the National Assembly, gave the NA Secretariat the order to handle the retirements of the PTI legislators again and give them to him because they could be handled legally.
The decision was made amid allegations and rumors that some PTI MPs were refusing to step down and sending out signals that their resignations shouldn’t be recognized.
In order to ensure that all PTI MPs who had resigned from their assembly seats did so genuinely and voluntarily.
NA Speaker immediately called all of the departing PTI parliamentarians. From June 6 to June 10, papers were addressed to each PTI member inviting them to confirm their dismissals separately.
The PTI leader, however, forbade members of his party from testifying before the NA speaker and called it an entrapment. The PTI lawmakers failed to appear, therefore the speaker was left with the problem.
The decision by former assistant chairman Suri to accept the retirements of the PTI legislators after they left the parliament in large numbers had been overturned days before to the speaker’s directive.
Just 109 days after they withdrew from their seats, on July 28, Ashraf accepted the surrender of 11 PTI members. The act of receiving the retirements actually started with the relocation.
According to representatives of the NA Secretariat, the dismissals were accepted after meeting the conditions of the National Assembly’s 2007 Rules of Order and Execution of Business.
The PTI then contacted IHC this month to request authorization for all of the PTI’s MNAs to quit and be unnotified.
The PTI then requested permission from IHC earlier this month to accept the defections and de-notifications of all of the PTI’s MNAs.
Polls will now take place on October 16 in NA-157, Multan IV, NA-22, Mardan III, NA-24, Charsadda II, NA-31, Peshawar V, NA-45, Kurram I, NA-108, Faisalabad VIII, NA-118, Nankana Sahib II, NA-237, Malir II, NA-239, Korangi, Karachi, PP-139, Sheikhupura, PP-241, Bahawal
Additionally, the ECP announced that the polling day for local governments will be October 23 in each region of the Karachi division.
In order to set the date for the local council elections in Hyderabad Division, the committee also requested a statement from the regional government and the Sindh electoral director.
