The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) decided on Thursday to notify PTI Chairman Imran Khan as a successful candidate for the seven National Assembly seats he won in October by-elections. However, the ECP decision has created an interesting situation by allowing Imran Khan to block these seven constituencies for as long as he wants.

Opponents have already been accusing the PTI chairman of dissolving Punjab and Kyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies ‘at his whims.’ Now, he controls the fate of NA constituencies.

And if by-elections were held on another 33 NA seats that fell vacant this week after Speaker Pervez Ashraf accepted resignations from PTI MNAs, Imran Khan would be controlling 40 NA seats alone.

This oddity arises out of the fact the election rules say that when a politician wins more than one constituency they will vacate all but one seat after taking the oath.

Unless Imran Khan takes oath for any one of the seven seats he won in October, he is not required by the law to leave the remaining six seats and the ECP cannot declare these seats vacant.

The PTI chief has no immediate plans to return to the National Assembly.

The constituencies he blocks include

• NA-22 Mardan
• NA-24 Charsadda
• NA-31 Peshawar
• NA-45 Kurram
• NA-108 Faisalabad
• NA-118 Nankana
• NA-239 Korangi Karachi

The decision to notify Imran Khan as the winner on seven seats came after an ECP bench under Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja ruled that Imran Khan had duly provided details on the money he spent for the by-election.

Earlier, there were reports that Khan had failed to submit the expenditure details and the ECP may denotify him on all of the seven seats.