The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Saturday directed candidates elected to multiple national or provincial assembly seats in the July 25 polls to resign from all but one seat.
The notification issued by the commission stated that Article 223 (3) of the Constitution required all candidates elected on multiple seats in the national or provincial assemblies to tender their resignations on seats they wished to vacate before taking the oath of membership for the assemblies. It said that the resignation, addressed to the Chief Election Commissioner, should be delivered either in person or through an authorised agent to the ECP Secretariat in Islamabad or its provincial headquarters.
With the resignations on seats to be vacated, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) will lose six seats in the National Assembly ahead of the election for the PM’s Office. PTI chairman Imran Khan will vacate Bannu, Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad seats, since he has announced to retain the Mianwali seat. PTI’s Tahir Sadiq will have to choose between NA-55 and NA-56 in Attock, and Ghulam Sarwar will have to opt between NA-59 and NA-63 in Rawalpindi.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Q will lose two seats since the party chief Pervez Elahi has been nominated by the party in alliance with the PTI as the candidate for speaker in the Punjab Assembly. The first session of the National Assembly has been called on August 13.
Published in Daily Times, August 12th 2018.
