All set for by-election on two Karachi seats on Oct 21

KARACHI: The by-elections on two key seats of the metropolis – NA 247 and PS-111 – will take place this Sunday while door-to-door canvassing by the candidates is going to end midnight today (Oct 19).

The major candidates in the run for NA-247 include PTI’s Aftab Hussain Siddiqui, PPP’s Qaiser Nizamani, Sadiq Iftikhar of MQM and PSP’s  Arshad Vohra.

While on the Sindh Assembly seat of PS-111 from Karachi, Shehzad Qureshi of PTI, Fayaz Pirzada of PPP and MQM’s Jehanzeb Mughal will contest the by-polls.

The number of registered voters in the both constituencies is more than  7,20,000, while 320 polling stations have been set up for the polling.

It may be recalled that NA -247 and PS-111 were vacated by Arif Alvi (now the President of Pakistan) and Governor Sindh Imran Ismail, respectively.

Earlier on October 14, by elections were held in 35 constituencies of national and provincial assemblies.

According to the results, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) managed to bag four NA seats each while PML-Q surprised everyone by winning two NA seats. MMA’s Zahid Durrani emerged victorious from NA-35 Bannu.

As many as 370 candidates were in run for by-elections in 35 constituencies of national and provincial assemblies, out of which 218 candidates contested from Punjab, 57 from Sindh, 59 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 36 from Balochistan.

For the first time overseas Pakistanis also exercised their right to vote through i-voting.The ECP had launched the Overseas Voting System on September 1 for today’s by-elections.