{"id":124513,"date":"2026-04-21T19:21:52","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T14:21:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?p=124513"},"modified":"2026-04-21T19:21:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T14:21:54","slug":"ecp-halts-senate-by-election-for-murad-saeeds-vacant-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124513\/","title":{"rendered":"ECP halts Senate by-election for Murad Saeed\u2019s vacant seat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">ISLAMABAD(National Times)- The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday halted the by-election for the vacant Senate seat of PTI leader Murad Saeed and issued a stay order after a petition challenged the legality of the de-notification process, adjourning further proceedings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A three-member bench of the ECP heard the petition regarding the matter and issued notices to all concerned parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During the hearing, the lawyer for petitioner MPA Jalal Khan appeared before the commission and stated that Saeed had been elected senator but did not take the oath of office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He argued, \u201cSince Saeed did not take the oath, questions arise over how he was de-notified as a member,\u201d adding that a person is considered a member of the house only after taking the oath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The petitioner\u2019s counsel further requested the ECP to postpone the by-election and remove the existing ambiguity in the matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After hearing the arguments, the ECP accepted the request and put the scheduled April 23 by-election on hold, issuing a stay order and adjourning the case until May 7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Later, the ECP also suspended Saeed\u2019s March 25 disqualification order \u201cuntil further orders\u201d. The ECP had disqualified Saeed from his Senate seat following his conviction in a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1979447\">May 9 case.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The ECP\u2019s notification regarding Saeed\u2019s disqualification mentioned his&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1979668\"><u>sentencing<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;by an anti-terrorism court (ATC) on March 7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Saeed was named among 47 proclaimed offenders&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1979668\"><u>sentenced&nbsp;<\/u><\/a>to 10 years\u2019 imprisonment in the May 9 General Headquarters (GHQ) attack case by a Rawalpindi ATC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a notification dated March 25 and available with&nbsp;<em>Dawn<\/em>, the ECP cited the court\u2019s March 7 order, stating: \u201cMurad Saeed, notified as returned candidate on a general seat of Senate from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province [..] has become disqualified under Article 63(1)(h) of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan and is hereby de-notified. Resultantly, his seat has become vacant.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Saeed was&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1925665\/senate-elections-arrangement-comes-through-as-pti-wins-6-and-opposition-bags-5-seats-in-kp\"><u>elected<\/u><\/a>&nbsp;as a senator in July 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ISLAMABAD(National Times)- The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday halted the by-election for the vacant Senate seat of PTI leader Murad Saeed and issued a stay order after a petition challenged the legality of the de-notification process, adjourning further proceedings. A three-member bench of the ECP heard the petition regarding the matter and issued [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124514,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>ECP halts Senate by-election for Murad Saeed\u2019s vacant seat - Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124513\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"ECP halts Senate by-election for Murad Saeed\u2019s vacant seat - Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ISLAMABAD(National Times)- The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday halted the by-election for the vacant Senate seat of PTI leader Murad Saeed and issued a stay order after a petition challenged the legality of the de-notification process, adjourning further proceedings. A three-member bench of the ECP heard the petition regarding the matter and issued [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124513\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-21T14:21:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-21T14:21:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-670x370-29-3.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"670\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"370\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124513\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124513\/\",\"name\":\"ECP halts Senate by-election for Murad Saeed\u2019s vacant seat - Nation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124513\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124513\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-670x370-29-3.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-21T14:21:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-21T14:21:54+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124513\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124513\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124513\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-670x370-29-3.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-670x370-29-3.png\",\"width\":670,\"height\":370},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124513\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"ECP halts Senate by-election for Murad Saeed\u2019s vacant seat\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\",\"name\":\"Nation\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\",\"name\":\"humza Jahangir\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"humza Jahangir\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/author\/humza\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"ECP halts Senate by-election for Murad Saeed\u2019s vacant seat - Nation","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/124513\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"ECP halts Senate by-election for Murad Saeed\u2019s vacant seat - Nation","og_description":"ISLAMABAD(National Times)- The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday halted the by-election for the vacant Senate seat of PTI leader Murad Saeed and issued a stay order after a petition challenged the legality of the de-notification process, adjourning further proceedings. 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