But, since Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif has not given a date for the dissolution of Punjab Assembly, it is uncertain whether polls for the Punjab Assembly will also be held on the same day.
Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf Chairman Imran Khan says party’s election campaign will start with the swearing-in of newly elected PTI office-bearers at Minar-i-Pakistan on March 23.
Talking to the media at the office of newly elected Lahore chapter President Abdul Aleem Khan on Sunday, Imran said March 23 would prove to be another tsunami to end the rule of status quo forces.
He alleged both the Pakistan People’s Party and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz were spending millions of rupees from the public kitty on their respective publicity and election campaigns.
The Election Commission is meeting on Wednesday to work out a mechanism for implementation of clauses in the Constitution relating to qualification and disqualification in order to effectively screen out holders of dual nationality and other ineligible candidates from the electoral process.
The main objective, an ECP official said, was to keep violators of law out of legislatures. The meeting will also consider some ‘necessary’ change in the forms for filing nomination papers.
After coming to power in March 2008, the Pakistan Peoples Party’s coalition government announced a nine-point agenda to reform the governance mode and address structural problems of the national economy it inherited from the military-led regime.
Five years down the road, most of the challenges, more or less, still exist. With transfer of power expected to take place in a few weeks after general elections due in May this year, the new government would be confronted with even more serious economic problems.
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), in its intra-party elections, elected Makhoom Amin Fahim as President and PM Raja Pervez Ashraf as General Secretary, Geo News reported.
Farooq H Naek performed duties as Election Commissioner for intra-party polls.
In the elections, Makhoom Amin Fahim was elected as President and Raja Pervez Ashraf as General Secretary of PPP parliamentarians.
It also elected Manzoor Wattoo, Qaim Ali Shah, Sadiq Emrani and Anwar Saifullah as provincial presidents in Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, respectively.
Police fired tear gas at a growing crowd of protesters who converged on parliament Tuesday as gunshots were heard and some demonstrators threw stones at security forces near Kulsoom Plaza, Geo News reported Tuesday.
The protesters are followers of Tahirul Qadri, who led a two-day protest march into the capital Islamabad overnight to demand a peaceful "revolution" and the dissolution of parliament.
A vast political legacy in the past, a complicated presidential term for his father in the present and a high-pressure general election in the near future – Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s official debut on December 27, 2012 contains all the elements of a thrilling political saga.
Bilawal’s entry into mainstream politics is being closely observed and has received mixed reactions from journalists, analysts and experts.
Senior journalist Quatrina Hussain is a vehement critic of dynasty politics but acknowledges that in South Asia, it is part of the package.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has approved the schedule for door to door verification of voters’ in Karachi. The process will take 69 days to complete.
Political parties in Khyber Agency have a new constituency to win over: the internally displaced persons (IDPs).
Representatives of different parties recently visited the IDP camp in a bid to woo voters for the NA-45 and NA-46 seats.
Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf Tuesday expressed satisfaction that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has completed arrangements for holding the general election in the country.
The Prime Minister made these remarks while talking to Secretary Election Commission Ishtiaq Ahmed Khan here at the PM House.
The Secretary Election Commission informed the Prime Minister that a code of conduct has also been prepared by the Election Commission prohibiting display of weapons during election campaign.
The Prime Minister appreciated the decision.
There was outrage on the opposition benches over a bill providing a ‘blanket cover’ for actions taken by former premier Yousaf Raza Gilani between his conviction and his ultimate disqualification – but the government, unfazed, simply put the bill before the house and got it approved anyway.
The National Assembly passed the bill, which validates acts and orders made and issued from April 26, 2012 to June 19, 2012 (both days inclusive), on Monday. The legislation is known as the Validation Bill, 2012.
