NA-120 election schedule expected to be announced next week

LAHORE: The Election Commission of Pakistan is expected to announce the schedule for NA-120 (Lahore) which has been left vacant following Nawaz Sharif’s disqualification from public office.

According to sources, the by-election on NA-120 will be held in the second week of September.

Sources further added that the Election Commission is bound to conduct by-election in the constituency within 60 days and the names of officiating officials will be forwarded to the Chief Election Commissioner on Tuesday.

The chief justice of the high court has also been contacted to nominate two judges for the appellate authority, sources revealed.

The seat was won by Nawaz Sharif in the 2013 General Election after he secured 91,683 votes against 52,354 votes of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf candidate Yasmeen Rashid.

Nawaz’s disqualification: What legal experts say

Disqualification can't be for life till a legal provision to do so is present: senior SC lawyer Abid Hassan Minto

On Friday, Nawaz Sharif stepped down as the prime minister of Pakistan after being disqualified from holding public office by the Supreme Court in a landmark decision on the Panama Papers case.

Announcing its verdict, the five-member bench unanimously disqualified Nawaz Sharif for failing to disclose his un-withdrawn receivables constituting assets from UAE-based Capital FZE in his nomination papers for the 2013 General Election, stating that this meant he was not ‘honest’ and ‘truthful’, as per the Constitution.

Following the verdict, the Election Commission of Pakistan issued a notice de-notifying Nawaz Sharif as a member of the National Assembly.