Polling underway in Khushab by-poll

KHUSHAB: The polling for by-election on a National Assembly seat in Punjab’s NA-69 Khushab constituency resumed this morning,  ARY News reported on Thursday.

Strict security arrangements were made in the constituency for the by-election.

The polling resumed at 8:00 in the morning, while the polling staff and candidates agents reached late at scores of polling stations. According to reports many polling stations were due to harsh cold weather.  The total number of registered voters in Na-69 is 3,37,645.

Sumera Malik had won the NA-69, in 2002 election on the ticket of the National Alliance, she was a PML-Q candidate in 2008 while she was in the PML-N fold in 2013 polls.

In the 2013 election, Sumera Malik won with the seat for third consecutive term in the 2013 election with record 118,108 votes defeating the Tehrik-i-Insaf’s Umer Aslam Awan, also for third time, who got 79,855 votes.

After 2013 election, on Umer Aslam Awan’s petition, Malik was disqualified by the Supreme Court and she then decided to field her son for the Jan 23 by-poll.

In PK-50 of Haripur, the seat had fallen vacant after PTI’s elected MPA from this constituency, Yousaf Ayub Khan, was disqualified by an election tribunal in Sept 2013 and subsequently the Supreme Court also upheld his disqualification.