ECP reschedules by-election in NA-258

ISLAMABAD: Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has rescheduled the by-election in NA-258 Karachi constituency to 28th November 2016, ARY News reported on Tuesday.

The ECP had earlier announced to hold the by-election in NA-258 on 24th November.

Director General Rangers (Sindh) Major General Bilal Akbar had informed the election commission that the para-military agency has been busy in the arrangements of IDEAS 2016 defence exhibition and requested that the election should be deferred to some other date.

The commission accepted the request and rescheduled the elections to 28th November of this year.

It is pertinent to mention here that the ECP had initially announced the by-election in NA-258 on 22nd November. However, the poll date later extended to 24th November due to the administrative reasons.

The seat fell vacant after former minister of state and PML-N leader Abdul Hakeem Baloch had resigned from the party and joined Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) has not fielded any candidate in the constituency. Baloch, now contesting the election on the PPP ticket, being deemed front-runner as 16 candidates from different political parties have been in the field.