islamabadPakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan has decided to contest bypolls to 33 National Assembly seats in all constituencies in March, The Express Tribune reported, quoting senior party leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi. . On Sunday, senior PTI leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi announced, “We have decided to participate in the bypolls and Imran Khan will contest from all the seats.” NA seats will go to polls on March 16.
The seats fell vacant after NA president Raja Pervaiz Ashraf accepted the resignations of the PTI MPs. According to The Express Tribune, PTI leader Fawad Chaudhary had earlier this month announced the party chief’s decision to contest bypolls on all vacant National Assembly seats. In a statement on Twitter on January 17, Fawad said, “Tehreek-e-Insaf will contest all the seats and Imran Khan will be Tehreek-e-Insaf’s candidate on these 33 seats.”
Qureshi said people had supported PTI during the July 17 bypolls as well and the party hoped that people would once again repose their faith in Imran Khan through their votes on March 16. He said that the ECP was obliged to hold elections within 90 days of seats becoming vacant, and that if they were not held on time it would be a violation of the constitution. The PTI leader said that he was not in touch with the establishment, according to The Express Tribune.
The Dawn newspaper reported that earlier in the month, Ashraf had accepted the resignations of 35 more Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MPs. PTI MPs had resigned en masse from the lower house of parliament in April 2022 following the expulsion of party chief Imran Khan from the National Assembly. MPs will be called separately for verification.
After stalling the process for eight months, Ashraf accepted the resignations of 34 more PTI MPs and Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rashid as the party indicated it would “test” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif with a vote of confidence. The Pakistan-based news portal said that now the total number of PTI MPs whose resignations have been accepted has gone up to 80.
The resignations of Haider Ali Khan, Salim Rehman, Sahibzada Sibghatullah, Mehboob Shah, Muhammad Bashir Khan, Junaid Akbar, Sher Akbar Khan, Ali Khan Jadoon, Eng Usman Khan Tarakai and Mujahid Ali were accepted. According to Dawn news, the resignations of Andalib Abbas, Asma Qadir, Malika Ali Bokhari and Munwara Bibi Baloch have been accepted from the reserved seats.