ISLAMABAD: Senior leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf )PTI) Fawad Chaudhry has announced that Party Imran Khan has once again decided to contest by-elections on all National Assembly constituencies that fell vacant after resignations of the party’s 35 lawmakers were accepted by the speaker on Tuesday.
Also read: NA speaker approves resignations of 35 PTI lawmakers
National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf, it may be recalled, had accepted the resignations of 35 Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers that also included two MNAs elected from reserved seats. All these MNAs had resigned from their seats in April last year following the ouster of former PM Imran Khan as a result of No Confidence move.
Reacting on NA speaker’s move, Fawad Chaudhry took to Twitter and announced that the PTI would contest elections on all the seats and Imran Khan will be the candidate of Tehreek-e-Insaf on these thirty-three seats.
تحریک انصاف تمام نشستوں پر الیکشن لڑے گی اور عمران خان ان تینتیس نشستوں پر تحریک انصاف کے امیدوار ہوں گے
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) January 17, 2023
It is pertinent to mention here that on April 17, the newly elected NA Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf directed the assembly secretariat to deal with the resignations of the PTI lawmakers afresh and present them before him so that they could be treated as per law.
Also read: Asif Zardari meets PM Sharif, discusses PTI resignations
Last year in June, the ruling coalition had formulated a strategy on the matter of en masse resignations of the PTI lawmakers from the assembly and agreed to proceed with phase-wise acceptance, following which, the NA speaker proceeded to accept 11 of the 123 resignations, leading to by-elections on these vacant seats.
Also read: PTI moves IHC against acceptance of 11 MNAs’ resignations
In October last year, Imran Khan won six National Assembly seats for the PTI in the by-election. Out of the eight National Assembly seats previously held by the PTI, Imran contested on seven, while Meher Bano Qureshi was to defend the party’s bastion in Multan. However, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) made inroads, with Hakeem Baloch winning in Karachi and Ali Musa Gilani in Multan.
