Former Prime Minister and PTI Leader of Pakistan, Imran Khan on Friday has made an announcement to contest an election on all nine(9) National Assembly seats that fell vacant following his party’s legislators resigned.
Around 123 legislators of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) had tendered resignation en masse on April 11, two days following Khan was expelled via a no-confidence vote.
But the speaker accepted the resignation of only 11 of them on July 28, leading to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) revealing that the by-election on nine would take place on September 25. Two legislators were indirectly elected and no election is required for their seats.
The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has announced that Khan has decided to “personally contest elections from the nine constituencies.”
There is no legal bar on a person to contest elections on the number of seats. However, after the elections, the elected person can retain only one seat and the ECP is bound to conduct elections on the other seats within 60 days.
In addition, PTI leader Fawad Chaudhary added that the party would hold a rally in the capital city of Islamabad within the next 48 hours and it would give a deadline to the government to dissolve assemblies and hold fresh elections.
He further said while adding that a maximum of one month would be given as a deadline, “We will give the deadline and if the government refuses to dissolve assemblies within that period, then we will announce a future course of action.”
The development showed the deepening of Pakistan’s political crisis that was set in motion in April when Khan’s government was toppled. The current assembly would complete its allotted five-year tenure in August next year but Khan and his PTI are determined to force snap polls.
According to reports, Pakistan’s election commission is preparing to hold general elections one year before October.
