The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday announced by-elections on March 16 for 33 National Assembly (NA) seats.
The seats were vacated after NA Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf swiftly moved to accepted the resignations of PTI lawmakers and AML chief Sheikh Rashid, pending since April 2022, in an apparent bid to scuttle the opposition’s purported plan to bring a confidence motion against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
According to a notification issued by the electoral watchdog today, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, the by-polls will be held in the following constituencies:
- NA-04 Swat-III
- NA-17 Haripur-I
- NA-18 Swabi-I
- NA-25 Nowshera-I
- NA-26 Nowshera-II
- NA-32 Kohat
- NA-38 D I Khan-I
- NA-43 Khyber-I
- NA-52 Islamabad-I
- NA-53 Islamabad-II
- NA-54 Islamabad-III
- NA-57 Rawalpindi-I
- NA-59 Rawalpindi-III
- NA-60 Rawalpindi-IV
- NA-62 Rawalpindi-VI
- NA-63 Rawalpindi-VII
- NA-67 Jhelum-II
- NA-97 Bhakkar-I
- NA-126 Lahore-IV
- NA-130 Lahore-VIII
- NA-155 Multan-II
- NA-156 Multan-III
- NA-191 Dera Ghazi Khan-III
- NA-241 Korangi Karachi-III
- NA-242 Karachi East-I
- NA-243 Karachi East-II
- NA-244 Karachi East-III
- NA-247 Karachi South-II
- NA-250 Karachi West-III
- NA-252 Karachi West-V
- NA-254 Karachi Central-II
- NA-256 Karachi Central-IV
- NA-265 Quetta-II
The notification said that the returning officers (RO) would issue a public notice in this regard on Feb 3. Candidates can file their nomination papers with the RO from Feb 6-8.
The names of the nominated candidates will be published on Feb 9, the electoral watchdog added.
