LAHORE: The Punjab Election Commission has announced to hold by-elections on five National Assembly and 14 Punjab Assembly seats that were vacated by candidates who won elections from multiple constituencies.
The announcement was made on Wednesday in a press release issued by the office of Punjab Election Commissioner Mehboob Anwar.The schedule of the by-elections will be announced soon.To a query about the expected date for by-elections, Mahboob Anwar told Media that the election commission was constitutionally bound to hold by-polls within 60 days, so they must be held before August 10, 2013.He was not confirmed about the exact date, and just said that decision about the schedule would be made soon.
When asked if the dates would fall in the holy month of Ramazan, which starts next month, he said that the commission would make a decision according to the constitution in this regard.Elections will be held in National Assembly constituencies: NA-68, NA-71, NA-129, NA-177 and NA-83, and in Punjab Assembly constituencies PP-6, PP-51, PP-118, PP-123, PP-142, PP-150, PP-161, PP-193, PP-210, PP-217, PP-247, PP-254, PP-289, and PP-292.Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was elected from two constituencies – NA-120 Lahore-III and NA-68 Sargodha-V – but now he had resigned from the Sargodha seat.
Imran Khan, who won three seats – from Mianwali, Peshawar and Rawalpindi – kept the Rawalpindi seat and gave up the other two, so by-elections in NA-71 Mianwali-I will be held.Shahbaz Sharif, the Punjab chief minister, also resigned from his National Assembly seat NA-129, which is now vacant.Similarly, Jamshed Ahmed Dasti resigned from NA-177 Muzaffargarh-II, and by-elections will be held on the seat. NA-38 Faisalabad-IX still lies vacant due to the death of a contesting candidate before the general election, and now by-election will be held there.
The Punjab Assembly seat PP-6 Rawalpindi-VI is now vacant after the resignation of Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, while PP-51 Faisalabad-I is vacant due to the death of a contesting candidate.The PP-118 Mandi Bahauddin-III seat is vacant after the resignation of Moonis Elahi, PP-123 Sialkot-III is vacant after the resignation of Khawaja Muhammad Asif and PP-142 Lahore-VI is vacant after the resignation of Hamza Shahbaz Sharif.From the provincial capital, PP-150 Lahore-XIV is vacant after the resignation of Mehar Ishtiaq Ahmed and PP-161 Lahore-XXV of Shahbaz Sharif is vacant, as he has resigned from there too.
The PP-193 Okara-IX seat is vacant after the resignation of Muhammad Moeen Wattoo, and PP-210 Lodhran-IV is vacant after the resignation of Muhammad Saddique Khan Baloch. The PP-217 Khanewal-VI seat has been declared vacant due to the death of a contesting candidate.Election will also be held in provincial constituency PP-247 Rajanpur-I, which was vacated by Shahbaz Sharif, while PP-289 Rahim Yar Khan-V lies vacant following the resignation of Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar.
The seat of PP-292 Rahim Yar Khan-VIII is also vacant after the resignation of Makhdoom Syed Mustafa Mehmood, while the PP-254 Muzaffargarh-IV seat is vacant after the death of a contesting candidate before the general election.According to the election commission, by-elections on the vacant seat of NA-48 Islamabad-I, which was left by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)’s Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, would also be held within the next two months, as per the by-elections schedule. – DailyTimes
