ECP rejects PTI's plea to revise NA by-polls schedule

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has rejected the plea of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to conduct by-polls on 33 National Assembly (NA) seats on March 19 instead of March 16, ARY News reported on Friday.

According to the ECP sources, a public holiday will be announced on March 16 in the respective constituencies due to NA by-polls and ECP will write a letter to the respective provinces for a public holiday.

Sources added that the election commission is bound to hold the by-elections within 60 days and postponing the polls will be a constitutional violation.

It may be noted here that PTI Central Secretary General Asad Umar had written a letter to the ECP Secretary in which he urged that a working day is not a suitable day for polling as a large section of the public would be busy carrying out their routine affairs.

The PTI leader in his letter requested ECP to revise the schedule and hold the elections on Sunday, March 19 which will encourage voter participation.

Earlier this month, ECP issued the schedule for by-elections on 31 vacant seats of the National Assembly (NA).

According to a notification issued by the ECP, the party candidates are asked to submit nomination papers between February 10 to 14, meanwhile, the initial list of the nominated candidates will be displayed on February 15.

The electoral watchdog will scrutinise the candidates who filed the nomination papers on February 18, meanwhile, the election symbols will be allotted to candidates on March 2.