Imran Khan to contest by-polls for all 33 NA seats  

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan will contest by-elections for all 33 National Assembly seats, 24NewHD TV channel reported on Wednesday.

National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf yesterday accepted the resignations of 33 PTI lawmakers.

The PTI leaders met with Imran Khan in the chair to mull over measures. The meeting gave go-ahead to field the party chief for by-polls. Local lawmakers will run the election campaigns. 

Murad Saeed, Omar Ayub Khan, Asad Umar, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Hammad Azhar, Shafqat Mehmood, Asad Qaiser, and Ali Zaidi are among the PTI bigwigs who have been denotified by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) after the speaker accepted their resignations.

Asad Umar told the media that the populist leader will be the party candidate for all these constituencies, calling it a symbolic election. 

He claimed the resignations of all the PTI leaders have been accepted in fear of their return to the house, which according to him is a real threat to the coalition government.

Last year, the ex-PM won six National Assembly seats for his party in a by-election.