ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday asked those candidates who secured more than one seat in May 11 polls to vacate all but one seat and inform the commission about their decisions by June 10.
In case those candidates who failed to inform the commission of their decisions by the deadline, they would not have the option of retaining the seats of their choice as the matter would be decided by the ECP in line with article 223 of the constitution, a senior ECP official told reporters.
The ECP official said that under the law those elected to more than one seat either in different houses of the parliament or in one house of the parliament and a provincial assembly or in the same body were required to keep one seat and vacate all others within 30 days of the declaration of the result for the last such seat. Those who did not do so, would lose all the seats except the one they had been elected to last.
If they had been elected to more than one seat on the same day, the seat for which the nomination forms were filed last would belong to him/her, and all others would stand vacated.
Those politicians who were elected to more than one seat include prime minister-in-waiting Nawaz Sharif, chief minister-designate Shahbaz Sharif, PTI chief Imran Khan, JUI-F head Maulana Fazlur Rehman, key PML-N leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Jamshed Dasti,.
Some of them were yet to convey to the ECP their decisions regarding the seats they wanted to retain.
