Bye-elections in Punjab, KPK to be held within 60 days in case of resignations: ECP

ISLAMABAD, Nov 28 (SABAH): Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday stated that by-polls will be held within 60 days if mass resignations were served in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) assemblies.

The statement from the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) came after former prime minister and chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan announced on Saturday last that his party was leaving all provincial assemblies and opting out of the corrupt political system.

Spokesperson ECP Haroon Shinwari, in a statement on Monday clarified that if the provincial assemblies were to be dissolved, elections will only be carried out on the seats of those particular assemblies rather than the National Assembly seats.

The ECP official acknowledged that it would be difficult to hold by-polls and general elections in the same year but added that the Commission was bound by the law to carry out the task.

“Delimitations of constituencies and holding local-body polls were also a difficult task but we still did it,” Shinwari said and added, “We will hold the by-polls according to the law even if it will be difficult to do so.”

The ECP spokesperson said if KPK and Punjab assembles get dissolved, the Commission will have to hold elections on combined 411 seats, and the complete cost of the entire process will be Rs22 billion approximately, adding that the cost of by elections in each constituency will be Rs50 to 70 million.

Earlier Monday, former information minister and PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry said that a meeting comprising the senior leadership of PTI was summoned to mull the decision of dissolving the KPK and Punjab assemblies. The PTI leader, in a tweet, said the matter of tendering resignations from the Balochistan and Sindh assemblies will also be under discussion. “Sixty-four percent seats of Pakistan will be vacant and pave the way for general elections,” he stated.