KARACHI: Voting is underway on Sunday for by-elections on the vacant National Assembly seat of NA-245 (Karachi East-IV).
The polling began at 8:00 am and will continue until 5:00 pm without any pause.
Over 515,000 registered voters are expected to exercise their democratic and constitutional right to the franchise, indicating an increase of 71,463 voters since the 2018 general elections.
A total of 263 polling stations have been set up by the commission, of which 60 have been declared “sensitive” and 203 “top sensitive”.
Elaborate security arrangements have been made to maintain law and order throughout the day, the police said.
The seat fell vacant after the death of Aamir Liaquat Hussain, televangelist-turned-politician and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) MP from the constituency who passed away under mysterious circumstances in June.
Hussain was elected on the PTI ticket in the last general elections, defeating Farooq Sattar of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) by securing 56,673 votes against his 35,429 votes.
17 candidates, except the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) who’ve withdrawn in favour of MQM-P, are taking part in the by-poll. Unlike PPP, PML-N hardly enjoys any vote bank in the constituency.
The decision has left the MQM-P as the main contestant against the PTI which won the seat in the 2018 general elections and has now fielded Mahmood Maulvi, a former special assistant to then-prime minister Imran Khan.
Last week, the PPP said the decision to withdraw its candidate in favour of MQM-P was in fact the decision of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) — the ruling coalition.
However, it made it clear that the strategy was opted only for the by-polls.
Meanwhile, enjoying a strong position in the constituency after support from different parties, the MQM-P, however, faces a new challenge as Sattar, who’s also the founder of the Organisation Restoration Committee of the MQM-P, is also contesting as an independent candidate.
