PESHAWAR: Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) has announced not to participate in the by-elections while Returning Officers (ROs) for by-elections to three vacant seats of the National Assembly from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Saturday issued public notices for by-elections.
In a statement issued here on Saturday, the provincial spokesman for PDM – the multi-parties alliance – said all allied political parties in the PDM had already decided not to participate in the by-elections.
He added that this was a unanimous decision of the alliance reached after lengthy deliberations among the leadership.
Meanwhile, Returning Officers (ROs) for by-elections to three vacant seats of the National Assembly from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Saturday issued public notices for by-elections.
These vacant NA constituencies include NA-22 (Mardan-III), NA-24 (Charsadda-II) and NA-31 (Peshawar-V) respectively. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is holding by-elections to these seats for second time.
The seats were earlier declared vacant in wake of the acceptance of the resignations of PTI legislators, Ali Mohammad Khan, Fazal Mohammad Khan and Shaukat Ali by the Speaker National Assembly.
In by-elections held on October 16, 2022, these seats were won by PTI Chairman Imran Khan, but, he did not retain any of them, so all these seats were declared vacant and now another by-election would be held on them.
The public notices for holding by-elections on the seats have been issued under Section 57 and Section 102 of the Elections Act, 2017 by the Returning Officers of each vacant National Assembly seat.
According to the notices, aspiring candidates could file nomination papers with the Returning Officers from March 12, to March 14, 2023, whereas the initial list of the candidates would be issued on March 15, 2023, which would be followed by the scrutiny of nomination papers till March 22, 2023.
The last date for filing appeals against rejection or acceptance of nomination papers is March 27, 2023, which would be decided by the Appellate Tribunal till April 2, 2023 and the same day the revised list of candidates would be published.
The last date for withdrawal of candidature and publication of revised list of candidates is April 5, 2023, which would be followed by allotment of election symbols to contesting candidates on April 6, 2023 while polling would be held on April 30, 2023.
