ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday issued notifications of 22 candidates who had won the Oct 14 by-elections held on 35 seats of national and provincial assemblies.

A spokesman for the ECP said the notifications of the remaining 13 successful candidates had been withheld as they had so far not submitted the details of election expenses as required under the law.

The by-elections had been held on 11 national and 24 provincial assembly seats. Most of the seats had been vacated by those elected on more than one seat in the July 25 general elections, including Prime Minister Imran Khan who had won elections from all the five National Assembly constituencies he had contested.

The by-elections were held on eight NA seats from Punjab and one each in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Islamabad. Similarly, polling was held in 11 constituencies of the Punjab Assembly, nine in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and two each in Sindh and Balochistan.

Spokesman says notifications of 13 remaining successful candidates have been withheld

However, the ECP issued the victory notifications of seven NA candidates, eight Punjab Assembly candidates, three KP Assembly candidates and two candidates each of the Sindh and Balochistan assemblies.

The ECP has notified the victory of Zahid Akram Durrani of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal from Bannu (NA-35), Malik Sohail Khan of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) from Attock (NA-56), Sheikh Rashid Shafique of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) from Rawalpindi (NA-60), Chaudhry Salik Hussain from Chakwal (NA-65), Moonis Elahi from Gujrat (NA-69), Khawaja Saad Rafique from Lahore (NA-131) and Mohammad Alamgir Khan of the PTI from Karachi (NA-243).

The ECP has stopped the notifications of former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi from Lahore (NA-124), Ali Awan of the PTI from Islamabad (NA-53), Mansoor Hayat Khan of the PTI from Rawalpindi (NA-63) and Ali Gohar Khan of the PML-N from Faisalabad (NA-103).

The ECP spokesman said the notifications of the remaining successful candidates would be issued when they would submit the details of their election expenses to the commission.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2018