ECP suspends by-elections for 37 National Assembly seats.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Sunday suspended the election schedule for 37 National Assembly (NA) seats - which had fallen vacant after the resignation of PTI lawmakers - in light of the orders issued by the Islamabad, Peshawar, Sindh and Balochistan high courts.

On Jan 27, the ECP had announced by-elections for 33 NA seats on March 16. On February 3, the commission said by-elections for another 31 NA seats would take place on March 19.

But earlier this month, the high courts of Peshawar, Sindh and Balochistan had suspended by-elections in their respective provinces while the Islamabad High Court (IHC) had suspended the de-notification of three PTI leaders.

In four separate notifications issued on Sunday, the electoral watchdog said that until further orders from the relevant courts, it was suspending the election schedule for one NA seat in Balochistan, three in Islamabad, nine in Sindh and 24 in KP.

This includes the following constituencies:

NA-02 Swat-I

NA-03 Swat-II

NA-04 Swat-III

NA-05 Upper Dir-I

NA-06 Lower Dir-I

NA-07 Lower Dir-II

NA-08 Malakand Protected Area

NA-09 Buner

NA-16 Abbottabad-II

NA-17 Haripur-I

NA-18 Swabi-I

NA-19 Swabi-II

NA-20 Mardan-I

NA-25 Nowshera-I

NA-26 Nowshera-II

NA-28 Peshawar-II

NA-30 Peshawar-IV

NA-32 Kohat

NA-34 Karak

NA-38 D I Khan-I

NA-40 Bajaur-I

NA-42 Mohmand

NA-43 Khyber-I

NA-44 Khyber-II

NA-52 Islamabad-I

NA-53 Islamabad-II

NA-54 Islamabad-III

NA-241 Korangi Karachi-III

NA-242 Karachi East-I

NA-243 Karachi East-II

NA-244 Karachi East-III

NA-247 Karachi South-II

NA-250 Karachi West-III

NA-252 Karachi West-V

NA-254 Karachi Central-II

NA-256 Karachi Central-IV

NA-265 Quetta-II

PTI resignations and high courts' orders

The NA seats were vacated after Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf swiftly moved to accept the resignations of PTI lawmakers, pending since April 2022, in an apparent bid to scuttle the opposition's purported plan to bring a confidence motion agaiAnst Prime Minister Shehbaz ShaArif.

After stalling the process for eight months, the NA speaker accepted the...