Way cleared for calling Pak assembly session
The Pakistan Election Commission on Saturday officially notified the results of the Feb 18 polls for all but 41 seats of national and provincial assemblies which were withheld on technical reasons, thus paving way for summoning the sessions of the newly-elected assemblies by as early as next week.
The official notification of results is a pre-requisite for determining election on 70 seats reserved for women and minorities, after which the president and governors can convene inaugural sessions of the national and provincial assemblies.
The official results of 258 of 272 National Assembly seats have been notified. Polling in four NA seats had been postponed, while results of 10 constituencies have been withheld as the 'defeated' candidates have taken stay orders from courts on account of alleged irregularities.
Similarly, results of 27 seats of the four provincial assemblies have also been withheld on the same grounds.
Election Commission secretary Kanwar Mohammad Dilshad said at a press conference there were 13 constituencies where the elections had been postponed because of the death of a candidate and of law and order problem. He said that in Balochistan a candidate had died after being elected, while Nawabzada Zulfiqar Magsi had taken the oath of the office of governor after being elected as an MPA and bye-elections for these two provincial assembly seats would be held.
The total number of national and provincial assembly constituencies for which the official results have been announced is 808.
The results of 291 of 297 seats in the Punjab Assembly, 89 of 99 seats in the NWFP Assembly, 122 of 130 seats in the Sindh Assembly and 48 of 51 seats in the Balochistan Assembly have been notified.
Kanwar Dilshad said that all candidates had submitted the returns of their election expenditure by the due date (Feb 28).
He said that those who had contested the elections as independents and had been declared successful were required to join a political party within three days of this notification.
The independent candidates will have to submit an application to the head of the party they wish to join, and the party heads will be bound to formally inform the joining of independent members of the national and provincial assemblies to the Election Commission through a letter.
He said election tribunals had been established in the four provinces and those having poll-related grievances could file complaints with them within 45 days. He said the tribunals would decide the cases within four months.
The EC secretary said that after the completion of the first phase, the share of political parties in the seats reserved for women and minorities would be determined in accordance with the total number of their members.
He said the seats reserved for women and minorities would be filled through the Proportional Representation System of Political Parties and in accordance with the priority lists of candidates submitted to the commission by the parties.
He said the members to fill seats reserved for women, which are allocated to a province, shall be elected through Proportional Representation System of Political Parties' lists of candidates on the basis of total number of general seats won by each political party.
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