The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has issued a schedule for by-elections on 11 National Assembly and 26 provincial assemblies' constituencies and polling for these seats will be held on October 14. According to the schedule, candidates can file their nomination papers between August 28 and August 30 while returning officers will complete scrutiny of the papers by September 4.
Appeals against acceptance or rejection of the nomination papers can be filed by September 8 and appellate tribunals will decide the appeals by September 13. According to the schedule, a revised list of validly nominated candidates will be published the following day. The candidates can, however, withdraw their candidatures by September 15 and a final list of the candidates will be published the same day.
The ECP will allot election symbols to candidates on September 16 and polling will be held on October 14. The by-elections will be held on the seats that fell vacant due to resignation by those who were elected on more than one seat in the general election as well as on those constituencies where election could not be held on July 25. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's (PTI) lawmakers vacated six seats of the National Assembly including four seats by Prime Minister Imran Khan and one each by Tahir Sadiq and Ghulam Sarwar Khan.
Other vacated seats of the National Assembly include two by Speaker Punjab Assembly Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, and one by Hamza Shahbaz Sharif. Election on NA-60, Rawalpindi, and NA-103, Faisalabad, had been postponed due to conviction of PML-N candidate Hanif Abbasi and suicide of one of the contesting candidates, respectively, before July 25 polls. The vacated National Assembly seats include NA-35 Bannu, NA-53 Islamabad, NA-131 Lahore, NA-243 Karachi, NA-65 Chakwal, NA-69 Gujrat, NA-56 Attock, NA-63 Taxila and NA-124 Lahore.
There are 13 provincial assembly seats in Punjab on which by-elections will be held. They include PP-3 Attock, PP-27 Jhelum, PP-87 Mianwali, PP-103 Faisalabad, PP-118 Toba Tek Singh, PP-164 and PP-165, Lahore, PP-201 Sahiwal, PP-222 Multan, PP-261 Rahim Yar Khan, PP-272 Muzaffargarh, PP-292 Dera Ghazi Khan and PP-296 Rajanpur. Nine provincial assembly seats of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on which by-elections will be held include PK-3 and PK-7 Swat, PK-44 Swabi, PK-53 Mardan, PK-61 and 64 Nowshera, PK-78 Peshawar and PK-97 and PK-99 Dera Ismail Khan.
Two provincial assembly constituencies each from Sindh and Balochistan where by-polls will be held include PS-87 Malir and PS-87 Khairpur; and PB-35 Mastung and PB-40 Khuzdar respectively.
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