The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has announced that it will boycott the upcoming by-elections in constituencies of party members disqualified in the May 9 cases, declaring those individuals its “true representatives.”
Several constituencies are up for grabs as the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) recently disqualified several lawmakers belonging to the PTI following their convictions in cases related to the May 9 riots.
As per the ECP schedule, the by-elections will be staged in the NA-66 Wazirabad, NA-129 Lahore-XIII, and PP-87 Mianwali-III constituencies on September 18, while in NA-143 Sahiwal-lll, NA-185, DG Khan-ll, PP-203 Sahiwal-Vl, NA-96 Faisalabad-II, NA-104 Faisalabad-X, and PP-98 Faisalabad-l, the polling will take place on October 5.
The ruling allies — Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) — had announced they will jointly contest the upcoming by-elections nationwide.
According to a statement issued after the meeting of the PTI’s political committee on Wednesday, the party said it considered the disqualified members victims of political vendetta and has praised their “sacrifices”.
The party reaffirmed its full support for [disqualified members] and pledged not to contest by-elections in their constituencies as a mark of protest.
