ISLAMABADS: The Election Commission of Pakistan on Friday issued program for polling on 33 National Assembly seats, which became vacant when Speaker NA Raja Pervez Ashraf accepted resignations of PTI parliamentarians, setting March 16 as the polling day.
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The 33 seats, including 3 from Islamabad, 5 from Rawalpindi, 2 from Multan, 2 from Lahore and 9 from Karachi had become vacant when Raja Pervez Ashraf accepted the resignations of PTI MNAs, filed in April last year after the ouster of Imran -led government by mean of a no-trust move, without calling them for verification as per his own words.
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According to the polling scheme, Returning Officer would issue Public Notice on February 2, after which candidates would be able to file nomination papers from Feb 6 to 8, 2023. The names of the nominated candidates would be published on February 9, and the last date of scrutiny of nomination papers by the Returning Officer has been set as February 13.
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As per the ECP scheme, the last date of filing of appeals against decisions of the Returning Officer of rejecting/accepting the nomination papers has been set as February 16, while the last date of deciding of appeals by the Appellate Tribunal has been set as February 20, 2023.
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The ECP set February 21 as the date for publication of revised list of candidates, and February 22 as the last date for withdrawal of candidature and Publication of revised list of candidates. The symbols would be allotted to the contesting candidates on February 23, while the polling would take place on March 16,l 2023.
