ECP halts Senate by-election after ruling Murad Saeed's seat never became vacant

The commission subsequently withdrew the schedule issued for the Senate by-election. During proceedings before the commission, counsel for petitioner Jalal Khan argued that Murad Saeed had never taken oath as a member of the Senate.

The lawyer questioned how a Senate seat could be considered vacant when the elected candidate had not taken oath and formally assumed membership. He requested the ECP to stop the election process for the purportedly vacant seat.

The commission accepted the petition and ruled that the circumstances did not constitute a Senate vacancy requiring a by-election. Murad Saeed had earlier been disqualified under Article 63(1)(h) following his conviction and 10-year sentence by an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi.

Following the disqualification, the seat linked to him had initially been declared vacant and a process was initiated to hold a by-election. The ECP's latest ruling, however, reverses that course by determining that Saeed had never formally become a Senate member because he did not take oath.

As a result, the commission concluded that his disqualification could not result in a Senate seat becoming vacant and withdrew the by-election schedule. The decision effectively ends the by-election process that had been initiated following Murad Saeed's disqualification.

It also establishes the ECP's position that election to the Senate alone did not create the vacancy in this particular case because Saeed had not completed the oath-taking process required to assume membership.