Pak EC notifies by-poll winners except of those seats won by Imran Khan
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday notified the results of the by-polls held on 16 October on all seats except for the six National Assembly (NA) seats won by former prime minister Imran Khan – who was disqualified in Toshakhana reference last week.
The by-elections were held on eight NA seats including seven abandoned by the PTI this April and three Punjab Assembly (PA) seats, Pakistani news outlet Dawn has reported.
PML-N's Chaudhry Iftikhar Ahmed has clinched the PP-139 seat from Sheikhupura, while PTI's Muhammad Faisal Khan and Malik Muhammad Muzaffar Khan emerged victories in the constituencies PP-209 (Khanewal VII) and PP-241 (Bahawalnagar V), respectively.
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Meanwhile, PPP's Syed Ali Musa Gillani and Abdul Hakeem Baloch won from the NA-157 (Multan IV) and NA-237 (Malir II) constituencies.
Imran Khan de-notified as MNA
In another notification issued later in the day, the ECP de-notified PTI chief Imran Khan as MNA from constituency NA-95 of Mianwali I with "immediate effect" following his disqualification in the Toshakhana Reference.
The ECP on Friday disqualified the former premier in the Toshakhana reference under Article 63(1)(p) for making "false statements and incorrect declaration", triggering protests in various cities.
In today's notification, it said that the decision on de-seating Imran was taken in terms of Article 63 of the Pakistan Constitution. The law states: "A person shall be disqualified from being elected or chosen as, and from being, a member of the Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament), if he is for the time being disqualified from being elected or chosen as a member of the Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament) or of a Provincial Assembly under any law for the time being in force."
The notification also stated that the decision was taken under articles 137 (Submission of statement of assets and liabilities), 167 (Corrupt practice), and 173 (Making or publishing a false statement or declaration) of the Elections Act 2017, the Dawn report added.
The electoral body's decision hours after Islamabad High Court (IHC) Chief Justice Athar Minallah observed that Imran had not been barred from contesting in future elections following the verdict in the Toshakhana reference against him, adding that the former premier "won't face any problems" to contest in the NA-45 (Kurram-I) by-election scheduled to be held on 30 October.
NA-45 was one of the four NA constituencies of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where polling for by-elections was originally scheduled for 16 October, but the ECP postponed it. It later issued a notification for holding the polls in the constituency on 30 October.
Imran will contest for the NA-45 Kurram seat besides Jamil Khan of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl, Sher Mohammad Khan of Jamaat-i-Islami and several independent candidates.
