LAHORE, Sept 1: The Election Commission of Pakistan on Wednesday notified the schedule for a by-election on the vacant seats of Data Ganj Bakhsh Town Nazim and Naib Nazim on Sept 18.

The seats fell vacant following the resignation of Khawaja Ahmed Hassan and Mian Muhammad Usman on Aug 11. The district and sessions judge, who has been appointed the returning officer for the by-election, will issue a notice on Thursday (today) inviting nomination papers from Sept 3 to 6.

The list of nominations will be notified on Sept 7 and scrutiny of the papers held on Sept 8. Appeals against the acceptance and rejection of the nomination papers will be received on Sept 9 and disposed of the next day.

The returning officer will publish the final list of candidates for the election on Sept 13 after allowing withdrawal of candidature on Sept 11. The returning officer will declare the by-election result on Sept 20.

A runoff election will be held on Sept 27 in the event of the winning candidates failing to bag the required majority. As many as 688 councillors will cast votes in the by-election.