{"id":128499,"date":"2026-06-30T18:11:04","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T13:11:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?p=128499"},"modified":"2026-06-30T18:11:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T13:11:19","slug":"ecp-reserves-verdict-on-suspension-of-senate-by-poll-schedule-for-murad-saeeds-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/128499\/","title":{"rendered":"ECP reserves verdict on suspension of Senate by-poll schedule for Murad Saeed\u2019s seat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">ISLAMABAD(National Times)-  The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday reserved its verdict in a case regarding the suspension of the schedule for a Senate by-election in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The ECP had&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1993764\">postponed<\/a>&nbsp;the by-election for the Senate seat that fell vacant following the disqualification of PTI\u2019s Murad Saeed, on an application moved by a PML-N lawmaker, just two days before the by-election was scheduled to take place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A three-member bench headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja heard the case on Tuesday, while counsels for both sides appeared before the commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Article 224 (5) of the&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.na.gov.pk\/uploads\/documents\/1333523681_951.pdf\">Constitution<\/a>&nbsp;reads \u201cWhen a seat in the Senate has become vacant, an election to fill the seat shall be held within thirty days from the occurrence of the vacancy\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yasin Raza, counsel for the petitioner and KP lawmaker Jalal Khan, argued that the law governing by-elections was clear and that the Constitution provided for three processes of conducting elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He contended that Murad was only a&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\">successful candidate<\/a>&nbsp;and not a senator, as he had neither taken the oath of office nor signed the register.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMurad Saeed is not a member of the Senate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Raza added that the Constitution was silent on the issue and did not recognise an illegal election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe Senate seat is neither vacant nor is he a member. The ECP should clarify this,\u201d he submitted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nisar Durrani, an ECP member from Sindh, asked what powers the Senate chairman would have if a senator did not take their oath, and whether constituencies would fall vacant if four to five members failed to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ali Gohar Durrani, counsel for PTI candidate Irfan Saleem, said Murad had been&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1985594\">disqualified<\/a>&nbsp;in March and the ECP had issued the by-poll schedule on March 25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He argued that under the Elections Act, once a schedule is issued, it cannot be withdrawn unless a candidate dies \u2014 a practice also followed in general elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Durrani further said Murad was a member but had not taken the oath, adding that the ECP had itself declared the seat vacant on March 26.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The CEC asked how the commission\u2019s March 26 decision declaring the seat vacant should be viewed. Durrani replied that there were three distinct grounds for a member\u2019s disqualification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In rebuttal, Raza said Murad was not representing the province and that an election was a matter of public law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The commission reserved its judgment after concluding the arguments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The PTI had fielded Irfan Saleem for the April 23 by-election. Regarded as a loyalist of PTI founder and former prime minister Imran Khan, Saleem was expected to win the seat, given the party\u2019s strength in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial legislature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Critics believe that the ECP\u2019s decision to postpone the by-election was aimed at preventing Saleem from entering the Upper House of Parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On March 7 this year, an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Rawalpindi handed Murad a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1979668\">10-year sentence<\/a>&nbsp;in a May 9 riots case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The ECP had declared the seat vacant at the time of announcement of the by-poll schedule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ISLAMABAD(National Times)- The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday reserved its verdict in a case regarding the suspension of the schedule for a Senate by-election in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The ECP had&nbsp;postponed&nbsp;the by-election for the Senate seat that fell vacant following the disqualification of PTI\u2019s Murad Saeed, on an application moved by a PML-N lawmaker, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest_news","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>ECP reserves verdict on suspension of Senate by-poll schedule for Murad Saeed\u2019s 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\/128499\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"ECP reserves verdict on suspension of Senate by-poll schedule for Murad Saeed\u2019s seat - Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ISLAMABAD(National Times)- The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday reserved its verdict in a case regarding the suspension of the schedule for a Senate by-election in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The ECP had&nbsp;postponed&nbsp;the by-election for the Senate seat that fell vacant following the disqualification of PTI\u2019s Murad Saeed, on an application moved by a PML-N lawmaker, [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/128499\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-30T13:11:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-06-30T13:11:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled-design-1-38.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=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/128499\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/128499\/\",\"name\":\"ECP reserves verdict on suspension of Senate by-poll schedule for Murad Saeed\u2019s seat - Nation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/128499\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/128499\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled-design-1-38.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-30T13:11:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-06-30T13:11:19+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/128499\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/128499\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/128499\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled-design-1-38.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Untitled-design-1-38.png\",\"width\":670,\"height\":370},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/128499\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"ECP reserves verdict on suspension of Senate by-poll schedule for Murad Saeed\u2019s 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 reserves verdict on suspension of Senate by-poll schedule for Murad Saeed\u2019s 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\/128499\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"ECP reserves verdict on suspension of Senate by-poll schedule for Murad Saeed\u2019s seat - Nation","og_description":"ISLAMABAD(National Times)- The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday reserved its verdict in a case regarding the suspension of the schedule for a Senate by-election in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. 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