ISLAMABAD: The Elec­tion Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday chan­g­ed the schedule of by-elections in 12 national and provincial assembly constituencies yet again, announcing that polling would now be held on Oct 16.

These include one Natio­nal Assembly constituency from Multan and three Pun­jab Assembly constituencies, where the ECP had previously decided to hold by-polls on Oct 9. These also include eight of the nine National Assembly constituencies that fell vacant following piecemeal acceptance by the NA speaker of resignations submitted by PTI MNAs.

The ECP also considered holding the second phase of local government elections in Sindh and decided that polling in all districts of Karachi division would be held on October 23.

A report on the districts of Hyderabad division has been sought from the provincial government and the provincial election commissioner, Sindh, to consider the flood situation and the conduct of local government elections. Polling date for Hyderabad division elections would be fixed in the light of the report.

The ECP took these decisions at a meeting held with Chief Election Commissi­oner Sikandar Sultan Raja in the chair.

The meeting was told that Eid Miladun Nabi was likely to fall on Oct 9 and therefore the date needs to be changed. The meeting was also told that the Lahore High Court’s Multan bench, during the hearing of a case of NA-157 Multan IV, said the ECP should change the date due to the expected Eid Miladun Nabi, which falls on 12th of Rabiul Awal.

The four constituencies where the by-polls were previously scheduled for Oct 9 were NA-157 Multan-IV, Punjab Assembly’s PP-139 Sheikhupura-V, PP-209 Khanewal-VII and PP-241 Bahawalnagar-V.

The other constituencies where by-elections will take place on Oct 16 are NA-22 Mardan-III, NA-24 Charsadda-II, NA-31 Peshawar-V, NA-45 Kurram-I, NA-108 Faisalabad-VIIII, NA-118 Nankana Sahib-II, NA-237 Malir-II and NA-239 Korangi Karachi-I. PTI Chairman Imran Khan will be the lone candidate of his party from all these eight constituencies.

One of the nine seats vacated after resignations included NA-246 (Karachi) where Abdul Shakoor Shad of the PTI had defeated PTI Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari in the 2018 elections. However, the PTI through a show-cause notice alleged his resignation was not only handwritten but signed and dated suggesting that he lied or tried to mislead the Islamabad High Court. The copy of his handwritten resignation also went viral on social media, making many to wonder if he lied before the court.

The IHC had however suspended ECP’s notification to de-notify him and therefore schedule for this particular constituency has not been announced.

Published in Dawn, September 15th, 2022