KARACHI: The by-elections in National Assembly constituency NA-249, Karachi West-II are being held today on Thursday.
The polling for the by-election in started at 8AM and will continue till 5PM without any interval. More than 30 candidates are in line for the seat including 18 independent candidates.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Amjad Afridi, PML-N’s Miftah Ismail, Qadir Khan Mandokhail of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) chief Mustafa Kamal, and Mohammad Mursaleen of MQM-P are participating in the election.
The NA-249 seat had fallen vacant after Faisal Vawda of the ruling PTI resigned from the National Assembly after he was elected a Senator.
The arrangements for the by-polls in the constituency have been finalized by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). The presiding officers have been directed that pictures of Form-45 be sent to returning officers in presence of polling agents of contesting candidates. The ECP has directed all political parties to follow the election code of conduct.
The ECP has asked the Karachi administration to appoint healthcare staff during the NA-249 by-election in order to effectively implement COVID SOPs during the polling process.
There are a total of 339,591 registered voters in the constituency which include 201,656 male and 137,935 female voters. 276 polling stations consisting of 796 polling booths have also been established. The Sindh government has announced a public holiday in the constituency due to the by-elections.
