Islamabad, Pakistan’s election commission today conditionally allowed Imran Khan to take oath as member of the National Assembly as it withheld his victory notifications from two constituencies and declared him winner from three others from where he contested in the July 25 general elections.
The 65-year-old Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman has been allowed to take oath as member of the National Assembly from one of the three constituencies subject to the decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in the pending case of violation of the election code of conduct against him.
It was not yet clear whether Khan can take oath as Pakistan’s next prime minister.
Legally, only those candidates can take oath as members of the National Assembly whose notification of success has been issued and their names published in the official gazette.
Khan, set to become Pakistan’s next prime minister after being nominated by his party, had contested and won from five constituencies.
The ECP has withheld victory notifications of Khan from NA-53 (Islamabad-II) and NA-131 (Lahore-IX) constituencies.
Notification from Lahore seat has been stayed on the order of Lahore High Court and from Islamabad due to pending case about allegation of violation of code of conduct as he stamped his ballot paper in front of TV cameras and violated secrecy.
The ECP has notified him as winner on NA-35 (Bannu), NA-95 (Mianwali) and NA-243 (Karachi). But the victory on all the three seats is conditional on the decision of code of conduct case against him in the ECP.
Khan is facing violation of code of conduct case for using inappropriate language during election campaign.
In case of conviction by the ECP, Khan will be disqualified from all seats.
But given his huge success and overall political environment, there are more chances that he will be only served a warning.
From NA-53 (Islamabad-II), Khan had defeated former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. The PTI chief had received 92,891 votes while the PML-N leader managed to get 44,314 votes.
