ECP suspends by-elections on 37 National Assembly seats

• ECP suspended by-elections on 37 National Assembly seats
• The ECP canceled polling in 24 NA constituencies in KP
• It said the decision was made after recent court verdict

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has suspended by-elections on 37 seats of the National Assembly.

The by-elections in 24 constituencies of the National Assembly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have been canceled by the election commission.

The election commission has also suspended by-polls on three National Assembly constituencies in Islamabad, one constituency in Balochistan, and nine constituencies in Sindh.

The ECP has already the schedule for holding the by-elections on March 16 and 19. The election commission said the by-polls were canceled after recent court decisions.

It said the membership of MNAs, whose resignations were accepted, has not been restored, sources revealed, adding that the court has not ordered to restore their membership. It said that such MNAs could not participate in National Assembly sessions.

Earlier, the Sindh High Court (SHC) restrained the ECP from conducting by-polls on National Assembly seats in Karachi.

The court made the decisions after nine former Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) MNAs from Karachi filed a petition against the by-polls.

The petitioners argued that after the LHC verdict, the Speaker National Assembly had no authority to issue any notification regarding the acceptance of resignations.

The court suspended the by-polls schedule set for March 16. The by-elections were intended to be held in the nine constituencies in Karachi.

In a similar decision, the Peshawar High Court also suspended the schedule of by-elections on National Assembly seats in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The court also postponed the by-elections in the province and also suspended the by-polls schedule held on March 16 and 19. The by-polls were to be held on 24 seats of the parliament’s lower house.

The by-elections were scheduled to take place as NA Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf accepted resignations from all PTI MNAs including the last batch on January 24.

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