LAHORE: In yet another U-turn, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has decided not to participate in the March 16 by-elections for all 33 National Assembly seats. Disqualification in the Tyrion White case, sources told JEE News on Friday.
The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has fixed February 9 to hear Khan’s disqualification plea for allegedly concealing his daughter, White, in his nomination papers submitted to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in 2018.
Earlier, Khan had decided to set another record by contesting 33 NA by-elections on March 16. These seats were vacated after the ECP de-notified the legislators after National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf gave approval to the legislators. Resignation
A day ago, the PTI chairman had withdrawn his nomination papers for the NA-193 by-election.
According to sources familiar with the matter, Khan has directed former party legislators to file their nomination papers for the by-elections. He asked the former MNAs to start campaigning in their respective constituencies.
It should be noted that PTI resigned en masse after the removal of Imran Khan from the Prime Ministership in April last year, but only 11 resignations were accepted in July. Later, as the party tried to make a comeback in the House, the Speaker started accepting resignations – and within days, he accepted 113 more resignations, including 33.
The development came after the party announced that Khan would contest on 33 seats and party leaders, who were elected MNAs from these constituencies, would contest as covering candidates.
