Election workers register voters at a polling station in a school during a general election, in Islamabad, Pakistan February 8, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Pakistan on Saturday decided to deploy army troops to maintain peace during key by-elections that are to be held in the country on Sunday to fill the seats vacated by various candidates or where elections were postponed due to the death of candidates.

The general elections were held across the country on February 8 to elect representatives for the National Assembly and four provincial assemblies. But polls were cancelled for one National Assembly, two Punjab Assembly and one seat of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly respectively.

Apart from those, candidates who had won more than one seat opted for a chosen seat after elections, leaving the Election Commission of Pakistan to organise by-election on 21 seats, including five National Assembly and 16 provincial assembly seats.

Elections will be held on two seats of the National Assembly each in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and one seat in Sindh, whereas elections will be held on twelve seats of Punjab Assembly and two each of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan assemblies.

In Punjab, NA-132 (Kasur) and NA-119 (Lahore) were vacated by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, while Shehbaz also gave up two of his provincial assembly seats in Lahore. He, however, retained his NA-123 seat in the National Assembly.

Due to the prevailing law and order situation, the ECP had asked the federal government to approve the deployment of Pakistan Army and Civil Armed Forces (CAF) troops to keep peace, which endorsed the move and announced that to use the armed forces’ units as a quick response force.

The Ministry of Interior in its notification issued on Friday stated that the CAF and Pakistan Army units would be used as second and third tiers of security and they would be available with immediate effect till April 22 in all 21 constituencies.

“The exact number of troops, date/period, area and mode of deployment would be worked out by the ECP in consultation with all concerned stakeholders based on ground requirement/assessment. The date of de-requisitioning of the said deployment will be decided subsequently after mutual consultation among all stakeholders,” the notification stated.

Separately, the Punjab government had also asked the federal government to suspend mobile internet services in the province’s 13 districts and tehsils on April 21 to maintain law and order.

The move comes despite severe criticism by media and political leaders of a similar step on February 8 when mobile services were suspended to keep peace.

Mahmood Khan Achakzai, center, Pakistan’s newly elected lawmaker from Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party
| Photo Credit: AP

The Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) backed by Imran Khan’s party on Saturday named the Pashtun­khwa Milli Awami Party chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai as their presidential candidate against Asif Ali Zardari, the joint nominee of the PML-N and the PPP.

Mr. Achakzai, 75, was nominated for the post against the Pakistan Peoples Party’s senior leader and former president Asif Ali Zardari, Geo News reported.

Mr. Zardari, 68, is a joint candidate of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and other political parties part of the coalition set to form a government in the Centre.

Mr. Achakzai, the chief of Pashtun­khwa Milli Awami Party (PKMAP), won the National Assembly seat from the NA-266 constituency in Balochistan’s Kila Abdullah-cum-Chaman.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder and former prime minister Imran Khan, who is incarcerated in Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail, has urged his party’s lawmakers to vote for the veteran politician, The News International reported.

PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Khan has confirmed the nomination of Mr. Achakzai for the presidential poll.

It should be noted that a PTI delegation, led by party leader Asad Qaiser, met with Mr. Achakzai and Balochistan National Party (Mengal) chief Akhtar Mengal earlier this week to seek their support in raising the voice against “rigging” in the general elections held last month.

During the meeting, Mr. Achakzai extended his party’s support for every political party that works towards the Constitution’s supremacy and empowering the Parliament.

According to a notification issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday, the presidential election is set to take place on March 9.

The nomination papers of Mr. Zardari for the presidential elections will be submitted on Saturday.

Mr. Zardari was announced as the consensus candidate for the country’s top constitutional office after the PML-N and the PPP decided to form the coalition when neither of the two parties managed to secure a clear majority in the February 8 polls.

Mr. Zardari has previously served as the president from September 2008 to 2013.

On September 8, 2023, Dr Arif Alvi became the fourth democratically elected president to complete a five-year term. However, in the absence of the electoral college required to elect the president, he is still in office.

Under the law, the president is elected by members of the National Assembly, Senate and four provincial assemblies.