Polling underway for by-election on National Assembly seat NA-221

THARPARKAR: Polling for National Assembly (NA) seat, NA-221 Tharparkar has begun amid strict security, ARY News reported on Sunday.

A tough contest is expected between the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) candidate Nizamuddin Rahimoon and Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) contestant Mir Ali Shah Jeelani in the constituency.

Polling that started from 8 in the morning will continue until 5pm without any break.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has established 318 polling stations for the by-poll and declared 13 of them as sensitive while 95 as highly sensitive.  Overall 281,900 voters will cast their vote in the NA-221 Tharparkar.

The District Returning Officer (DRO) in the constituency said that police and Rangers personnel will provide security during the polling process, which will begin at 8:00 am and culminate at 5:00 pm.

The local administration has facilitated the travel of polling staff to reach their respective polling stations as 4,000 cops have been deployed in the constituency for maintaining the law and order situation.

Sindh Rangers has been deployed at sensitive and highly sensitive polling stations along with the installation of 200 CCTV cameras at various stations.

It is pertinent to mention here that the NA-221 became vacant after Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) MNA Pir Noor Muhammad Jeelani lost his life due to coronavirus in December 2020.

Born on September 15, 1951, Jeelani was a senior politician and was elected as MNA from Sindh’s constituency of NA-221-Chachro in Tharparkar in the 2018 general elections by beating the current Foreign  Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.