The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has released the schedule for the by-election of NA-120 and polling for the National Assembly constituency will be held on September 17, according to a notification issued by the ECP.
The notification issued by the ECP on Tuesday says that nomination papers for the by-election can be filed from August 10 to 12 while the nomination papers would be scrutinised from August 15 to 17. The last date to withdraw papers is August 25 and the final revised list of candidates will be displayed on 26th.
As per the notification, Regional Election Commissioner of Faisalabad Tahir Hasan will act as the District Returning Officer (DRO) for NA-120 by-election. Moreover, District Election Commissioner of Bahawalnagar Muhammad Shahid will be the returning officer while Assistant Commissioner Lahore City Abdullah Khurram, District Education Officer (Secondary) Lahore Ihsan-ul-Haq and Assistant Director at Provincial Election Commission Khalid Mehmood will act as assistant returning officers for NA-120.
The seat of NA-120 fell vacant on July 28 after the disqualification of former PM Nawaz Sharif. The political temperature is increasing with every passing day in NA-120 as all the major political parties have started their election campaigns in the constituency; although not all the parties have disclosed their candidates yet. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has nominated Dr Yasmin Rashid for the contest as she had got over 50,000 votes against Nawaz Sharif in the general elections of 2013 – the highest ever against Nawaz Sharif so far.
There are reports that Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif may be fielded to contest the election from here but his name has not been finalised yet. A PML-N Union Council Chairman (UC-58) from the area Shahab Basharat told Pakistan Today that the party has started campaign but the candidate was not finalised yet as the names of both Shehbaz Sharif and Kulsoom Nawaz are being discussed within the party for NA-120. The by-election of NA-120 has become one of the most significant by-elections in the political history of the country as PML-N has high stakes in this contest keeping in view the party’s stronghold in Lahore and increasing popularity of PTI.
According to the ECP, total registered voters in the constituency are 321,568 among which 179,464 are male while 142,104 are female voters. It is worth mentioning here that the total turnout during 2013 elections from the constituency was more than 51 percent and high voter turnout is also expected in the by-election as polling is going to be held on Sunday.
The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has also not decided its candidate so far but the names of Zubair Kardar, Aziz-ur-Rehman Chan and Zulfiqar Ali Badar are being discussed in the party. Talking to Pakistan Today, PPP’s Lahore President Aziz-ur-Rehman Chan said that the old ticket holder of PPP from the area Zubair Kardar has started the party’s campaign but the final announcement of the candidate will be made by Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. Moreover, PPP’s Central Punjab President Qamar Zaman Kaira said that the candidate will be announced by party’s chairman after conducting interviews of the potential candidates.
Spokesperson for the provincial election commission Huda Ali Gohar told Pakistan Today that ECP stipulates that by-election must be held within 60 days after the vacancy of the seat. “No public office holder can run the election campaign in the constituency according to the ECP,” she said.
