Preparations complete for by-election in PS11 Shikarpur

SHIKARPUR: The by-election for PS11 Shikarpur will be held on Thursday in which the main contest is expected between Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh of the Pakistan People’s Party and Nasir Mehmood Soomro of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazl).

The seat fell vacant after Imtiaz Shaikh quit the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional to join the PPP, and is widely tipped to win the bypolls. The main competition comes from Soomro, who is the son of former JUI-F Secretary General Sindh Khalid Mehmood Soomro who was shot dead in 2014 in Sukkur.

There are five candidates taking part in the bypolls. The total number of voters in the constituency is 135,430 for which 105 polling stations have been set up all which have been declared sensitive.

There will be 700 Rangers and 2400 policeman deployed on duty for security purposes. The presiding officer of polling station 34 and 93 have reportedly gone missing along with the ballot papers and other election material, for which a search is currently underway.