PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Tuesday knocked at the door of the Peshawar High Court to challenge the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) schedule for by-elections National Assembly seats in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) schedule for by-elections on three National Assembly seats in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).
PTI lawyer filed an application with the Peshawar High Court (PHC), requesting the high court to suspend the election schedule.
The petition stated that ECP cannot hold by-polls 120 days before general elections. “The holding of by-polls on April 30 is violation of Article-124 of Constitution,” it said.
It is pertinent to mention here that the ECP had announced holding by elections on three National Assembly seats that include NA-22 (Mardan-III), NA-24 (Charsadda-II), and NA-31 (Peshawar-V) respectively.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is holding by-elections on these seats for the second time.
The seats were earlier declared vacant in wake of the acceptance of the resignations of PTI legislators, Ali Mohammad Khan, Fazal Mohammad Khan, and Shaukat Ali by the Speaker National Assembly.
In by-elections held on October 16, 2022, these seats were won by the PTI Chairman Imran Khan, but, he did not retain any of them, so all these seats were declared vacant and now another by-election would be held on them.
According electoral watchdog schedule, today is the last date for nomination of papers whereas the initial list of the candidates would be issued on March 15, 2023, which would be followed by the scrutiny of nomination papers till March 22.
However, according to Sohail Ahamd, a spokeswoman for ECP KP, only three contenders have filed their papers for Peshawar 31 while no one has filed nomination papers for the Mardan or Charsadda seats.
