The ECP Announced By-Election For The Vacant Seats On 25 September After The Resignation Of 11 PTI MPs Was Accepted.

Imran Will Be The Only PTI Player In The Nine Vacant Seats In The NS

The ousted Prime Minister Imran Khan is trying to make a very costly argument by deciding to fill all nine seats in the National Assembly, for which by-elections will be held on 25 September. It may be recalled that these nine general seats (along with the two seats reserved for women) had been officially vacated following the National Assembly Speaker's controversial acceptance of the resignation of only 11 PTI-MLAs.

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The announcement that Mr. Khan will contest all nine constituencies was first made on the PTI's official Twitter account and was later confirmed by the party's deputy chairman Fawad Chaudhry at a press briefing. The ECP announced by-elections on 25 September for seats left vacant after 11 PTI MPs accepted their resignation. The nine constituencies where by-elections will be held on Sept 25 are NA-22 Marden, NA-24 Charsadda, NA-31 Peshawar, NA-45 Khurram, NA-108 Faisalabad, NA-118 Nankana Sahib, NA-237 Malir, NA-239 Korangi Karachi and NA-246 Karachi South.

Although the National Assembly Speaker has not explained the reasons for his decision, it seems that he wants to ease the pressure for early elections created by the mass resignation of over 100 PTI MPs in April. On July 28, National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf accepted the resignations of 11 PTI members - nine on the general lists and two on the women's lists - prompting controversy over the fact that the resignations were accepted on different occasions. These MPs were among more than 120 who resigned on April 11, two days after a vote of no confidence former Prime Minister Imran Khan. The PTI leaders whose resignations were accepted and whom the ECP also ruled out were Ali Muhammad Khan, Fazal Muhammad Khan, Shaukat Ali, Fakhar Zaman Khan, Farrukh Habib, Jamil Ahmed Khan, Muhammad Akram Cheema, Abdul Shakur Shad, Shirin Mazari, Shandana Gulzar Khan and Ijaz Ahmed Shah. Dr Mazari and Shandana Khan were elected to seats reserved for women.

In the 2018 parliamentary elections, the PTI leader contested five constituencies and won in all of them. He defeated Khawaja Saad Rafique of PML-N in NA-131 Lahore, former PML-N Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in NA-53 Islamabad, Syed Ali Raza Abidi of DMK-Pakistan in NA-243, Ubaidullah Khan of PML-N in NA-95 Mianwali and Akram Khan Durrani of PML-N in NA-35 Bannu. According to the ECP, candidates can submit their nomination forms between 10 and 13 August, which will be scrutinized till 17 August and election symbols will be distributed to the candidates on 29 August. The deadline for the Court of Appeal to decide on appeals against the approval and rejection of nomination forms is 25 August.

Khan announced that he would stand for the by-election for all nine seats, which surprised many. Some commentators wondered if the PTI chairman could not find another suitable candidate and what the cost of re-election would be if Khan won several seats and gave up all but one.

Mudassir Rizvi, Fafen's representative, was the view that according to the constitution, by-elections have to be held within a certain period of time if a seat becomes vacant, and a candidate can contest for more than one seat but can retain only one seat if he wins in more than one constituency.

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In this way, our Constitution also allows state money to be used for the political ambitions of politicians and parties. With just one constituency, the staff required, the number of polling stations and booths to be set up and at least a few thousand election officials, the costs run into millions of dollars each time. When a candidate runs in by-elections or general elections in different constituencies, he or she is just trying to prove his or her popularity.