Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan is eyeing to make history as the ex-prime minister will run for 33 seats in the upcoming National Assembly by-elections, set to take place on March 16.

The PTI chief will become the first person in the country to turn for more nearly three dozen seats after his party’s core committee decided to field him as its candidate for the polls — which will take place across the country.

In a press conference on Sunday after the party’s core committee in Lahore, PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi said: “Imran Khan will be PTI’s candidate for all constituencies that [are up for grabs].”

The move will likely pile up pressure on the ruling coalition as if the PTI chief successfully wins a majority of the seats, it might dent the government’s popularity and give the Khan-led party an edge in the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa elections — expected to take place in the next three months.

The NA seats had fallen vacant earlier this month when NA Speaker Raja Parvez Ashraf accepted the resignations of PTI lawmakers and Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rashid.

The PTI resigned en masse in April last year after the ouster of Khan as the prime minister, but only 11 resignations were accepted in July. Later, as the party tried to stage a comeback to the house, the speaker began accepting their resignations — and in a couple of days, he accepted 113 more, including the 33.

In October last year, the former prime minister also set a record when he won six NA seats for the PTI in a by-election that was seen as a direct contest between the former ruling party and the current ruling coalition of the PDM parties, which also grabbed two seats.

Seats up for grabs

More to follow…