By-polls to be held in eight constituencies

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Thursday decided to conduct by-elections in eight constituencies – including two national and six provincial assemblies – asking the provincial governments to ensure strict adherence to the SOPs.

Chaired by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, the commission directed issuance of a schedule for the polls. ECP members and officials and PPP senior leader Taj Haider attended the meeting. Legal Adviser Murtaza Wahab and other representatives of the Sindh government attended the meeting via video link.

The secretary ECP informed the meeting that by-elections were pending in eight constituencies across the country, including six provincial and two National Assembly seats.

There are three seats of Sindh Assembly, one each of Balochistan Assembly, Punjab Assembly and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly. Likewise, one seat each is vacant for the National Assembly in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The meeting took the opinion received from the provincial governments into consideration. The meeting noted that earlier, the governments of Sindh and Balochistan had agreed to hold by-elections at the request of the Election Commission, while the governments of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab had recommended adjournment.

All the provincial governments were invited to attend Thursday's meeting but no representative from any government except Sindh attended the meeting in person or through video link. Taj Haider contended that under the Constitution and the law, elections had to be held within 60 days on a vacant seat in any constituency.

Haider drew the ECP’s attention to the fact that all the provincial assemblies and the National Assembly were the electoral colleges of the Senate and if by-elections were not held here, the electoral college would remain incomplete and the people of these constituencies would not be represented due to non-holding of by-elections in these constituencies.

He pointed out that elections had also been held in the United States, where the Covid-19 epidemic was most prevalent. He said presidential elections had been held in the United States, so constitutional obligations could be fulfilled here keeping all the security measures in mind.

Taj Haider said the Sindh government had given assurance that implementation of Covid-19 related SOPs would be ensured during in the election. Murtaza Wahab said at present there were not many coronavirus positive cases in Umerkot and Sanghar districts and assured the Commission that SOPs would be fully implemented in the election process.