PHC suspends by-elections on 24 NA seats

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Friday suspended the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) notification of holding by-elections on 24 NA seats in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), ARY News reported.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf had moved PHC last week seeking the suspension of the Election Commission of Pakistan’s by-election schedule on 24 NA seats, slated to be held on March 16 and 19.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Syed Muhammad Attique Shah and Justice Syed Arshad Ali announced the verdict.

After hearing arguments, the PHC suspended ECP’s by-elections schedule and adjourned the hearing until March 7.

The by-elections were scheduled to be held in the constituencies of NA-4 Swat, NA-17 Haripur, NA-18 Swabi, NA-25 and NA-26 Nowshera, NA-32 Kohat, NA-38 Dera Ismail Khan (DI Khan) and NA-43 Khyber.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf had announced resignations from the National Assembly on April 11 last year, minutes before the election of Shehbaz Sharif as the new prime minister.

The PHC comes days after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) suspended National Assembly (NA) Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf’s notification regarding the acceptance of PTI MNAs’ resignations from Islamabad.

Earlier, the Lahore High Court (LHC) suspended the order of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) that denotified the party’s lawmakers elected from Punjab.