ISLAMABAD: The ruling Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) has decided not to contest any of the six NA seats vacated by PTI Chairman Imran Khan, as the ECP A partial schedule of by-elections has been announced for three of them.
Among the 6 seats to be vacated by the PTI Chairman are Mardan, Charsadda and Peshawar, Faisalabad and Nankana Sahib and one in Karachi.
Imran had kindly kept the seat of the National Assembly. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has announced to hold by-elections on April 30 in Mardan, Charsadda and Peshawar National Assembly seats.
The PDM is decided by the alliance partners in mutual consultation. Maulana Fazlur Rahman, the president of the ruling alliance informed the leadership of the respective provinces about this decision.
The PPP and ANP, which are not part of the PDM but are coalition partners in the federal government, are likely to follow suit.
No decision was announced by the main opposition party PTI. However, sources pointed out that since the Tyrion White case is being heard in the courts, Imran has withdrawn his previous policy of contesting elections in person. In the light of this decision, Khan is unlikely to contest the election.
KPK PDM officially announced on Saturday that as the coalition parties are gearing up for the country’s general elections later this year, they will not contest any by-elections. This is the agreed policy and decision of PDM.
According to the decision, no candidate of the coalition parties will submit nomination papers for NA-22 Mardan, NA-24 Charsadda and NA-31 Peshawar.
From these constituencies, PTI’s Ali Muhammad Khan, Fazal Muhammad Khan and Haji Shaukat Ali were declared successful in the 2018 elections.
However, he resigned from the constituency along with other PTI members in April last year.
Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf accepted the resignations of 11 members including these three.
Imran Khan contested on all the vacant seats and lost on one.
In the elections held on October 16 last, Karachi won the remainder. Later ECP declared these seats vacant.
