By NNN-APP
Islamabad : The Election Commission of Pakistan Saturday announced official results of the Elections 2008 for 808 national and provincial assemblies seats in the country.
“Official results of 258 seats of National Assembly, 291 Punjab Assembly, 122 Sindh Assembly, 89 NWFP Assembly and 48 seats of Balochistan Assembly have been announced through a gazette notification,” Secretary Election Commission Kanwar Muhammad Dilshad said while addressing a news conference here.
Secretary Kanwar Dilshad said the Election Commission held a meeting Saturday under the chairmanship of Chief Election Commissioner Justice (Retd) Qazi Muhammad Farooq and approved the gazette notification of election results.
He said Justice Nasim Sikandar (Punjab), Justice Ahmad Khan Lashari (Balochistan), Justice Jahanzaib Rahim (NWFP) and Justice Ghulam Dastgir Shahani (Sindh) attended the day-long meeting.
All the successful candidates have filed their returns or election expenditures before the expiry of last date of Feb 28 with their respective returning officers.
“Various courts have issued stay orders in 26 national and provincial assemblies constituencies due to which their official results have not been announced in the gazette notification,” he said.
Stay orders have been issued in 10 national assembly constituencies, one Punjab Assembly, 7 Sindh Assembly, 7 NWFP Assembly and one Balochistan Assembly constituency, he said.
Kanwar Dilshad said the general elections in 13 national and provincial assemblies seats were postponed either due to the death of contesting candidates or law and order situation.
He said in one constituency of the Balochistan Assembly, the successful candidate died the day after the elections and in an other constituency, the successful candidate Nawab Zulfiqar Ali Magsi took oath as the Balochistan Governor.
The bye-elections would be held in 15 national and provincial assemblies seats in line with the schedule to be announced in the days ahead, he said.
To a question, he said “it was a matter of satisfaction for all of us that international observers, political parties, civil society organizations and media acknowledged the transparency in the general elections”.
“Local media played a vital role and greatly helped us conduct general elections in free, fair and transparent manner,” he said.
Replying to another question, he said all the applications or complaints filed with the Election Commission have been disposed off to the complete satisfaction of the contesting candidates.
Responding to a query, he said independent candidates willing to join any political party, will have to inform the Election Commission in writing about their decision within three days after issuance of the gazette notification.
He said the reserved seats for women and minorities would be allocated to the political parties as per their share according to the priority lists provided by them to the Election Commission on Nov 26.