ECP unveils schedule for by-polls on 31 NA seats

ISLAMABAD: Election commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday issued the schedule for by-elections on 31 vacant seats of the National Assembly (NA), ARY News reported.

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.

It is pertinent to mention here that the ECP denotified more Members of the National Assembly (MNAs) of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) after the NA speaker accepted their resignations.

After the announcement of PTI MNAs’ return to the National Assembly, the federal government made a move to accept their resignations in an apparent bid to reduce the number of opposition lawmakers.

At the request of NA Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) denotified 35 more MNAs including top PTI leaders.

READ: ‘PTI MNAS NEEDED TO WITHDRAW RESIGNATIONS BEFORE RETURNING TO NA’

The denotified PTI lawmakers include Asad Umar, Asad Qaiser, Pervez Khattak, Murad Saeed, Imran Khattak, Shehryar Afridi, Ali Amin Gandapur, Noorul Haq Qadri, Raja Khurram Nawaz, Ali Nawaz Awan, Sadaqat Ali Khan, Ghulam Sarwar, Sheikh Rashid Shafiq, Mansoor Hayat Khan, Fawad Chaudhry, Sanaullah Khan, Hammad Azhar, Shafqat Mahmood, Malik Amir Dogar, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Zartaj Gul, Faheem Khan, Saifur Rehman, Alamgir Khan, Ali Zaidi, Aftab Siddiqui, Ataullah Khan, Aftab Jahangir, Muhammad Aslam Khan, Najeeb Haroon, Qasim Suri and others.

Moreover, PTI MNAs on reserved seats including Aliya Hamza Malik and Kanwal Shauzab were also denotified. The election commission also denotified Awami Muslim League (AML) chief Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed.