Karachi: Polling for NA-258 by-election underway

KARACHI: Polling begins on Monday morning, in NA-258, a National Assembly constituency in suburban areas of Karachi, ARY News reported.

Fourteen candidates of different political parties and independents have been in the field for the contest. There are 408,613 registered voters in the constituency.

The seat fell vacant after Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Abdul Hakeem Baloch had resigned from the party and joined Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). Baloch is now contesting the by-election on the ticket of People’s Party.

The provincial and federal government has announced a public holiday for all offices located in the constituency. The Chief Election Commissioner Sindh toured the constituency and observed the arrangements made for the by-election.

Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had announced the by-election on 22nd November. The poll date later extended to 24th November due to the administrative reasons.

The election was again rescheduled after Director General Rangers (Sindh) Major General Bilal Akbar had informed the election commission that the para-military agency was busy in the arrangements of IDEAS 2016 defence exhibition.

The election commission has established 287 polling stations for the by-election. All of them have been declared sensitive.