Nawaz Sharif sits with party leaders as he chairs a meeting on the current political situation in Islamabad on January 12, 2012.—AFP

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-N has invited applications from candidates desirous of getting the party's ticket for the by-elections to five National Assembly seats to be held next month and the Senate elections scheduled for March 2.

According to a spokesman, the candidates for by-elections can submit their applications by Thursday.

According to analysts, the by-elections for one seat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and four in Punjab will expose the vote banks of the major parties in the constituencies, although the Pakistan Tehriki-Insaaf has decided not to participate in the polls.

The seats had fallen vacant after leaders from almost all major parties who had been returning to the assembly for decades joined the PTI. Polling will be held on Feb 20.

Those who resigned from the assembly are former foreign ministers Shah Mehmood Qureshi (NA-148, Multan) and Sardar Aseff Ahmed Ali (NA-140, Kasur) from the PPP, PML-N leader Makhdoom Javed Hashmi (NA-149, Multan), Jahangir Tareen (NA-195, Rahimyar Khan) from the PML-F and ANP's Nawabzada Mohammad Khan Hoti (NA-9, Mardan). All of them have joined the PTI.

National Assembly Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza had accepted their resignations on Jan 4.

Although all by-elections would be significant amidst talk of a wave of change, all eyes are set on the seats vacated by Mr Qureshi and Mr Hashmi in Multan, the home city of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.

The PPP has decided to field the prime minister's son Musa Gilani.