Maryam Nawaz calls off visit to Karachi

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz cancelled her visit to Karachi, party spokesperson Maryam Aurangzeb confirmed on Saturday.

The spokesperson added that the party vice president decided to cancel her visit owing to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, which was spreading rapidly across the country and putting the lives of the people in grave danger.

Earlier after Maryam Nawaz's recovery, political secretary Zeeshan Malik had announced that doctors had allowed her to resume political activities.

Read: Daska's victory evidence of PTI's diminishing power, says Maryam

PML-N vice president was scheduled to arrive in Karachi on a two-day visit on April 24 to address workers at Baldia Town Chandni Chowk regarding the election rallies of the PML-N candidate in NA-249.

Following the party leader’s visit, PML-N was set to hold a grand power show in the NA-249 constituency, where a by-poll is slated for April 29.

The rally was to be the PML-N's first grand show after a rift in the opposition alliance, the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) over the issue of en masse resignations from the assemblies.

According to sources in the PML-N, Maryam was also set to hold meetings with the editors of newspapers, the business community and her party's leaders during her visit to the metropolis.

The contest

The NA-249 seat had fallen vacant after Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's (PTI's) Faisal Vawda had stepped down as an MNA to assume the role of a senator.

There are 339,552 registered voters in the constituency, where 277 polling stations have been set up. All of these polling stations have been declared either sensitive or highly sensitive.

Read more: Unwell Maryam Nawaz gets tested for Covid-19 again

"We are installing CCTV cameras at the polling stations, where police and Rangers and police personnel will be deployed for security purposes," provincial election commissioner Aijaz Anwar Chauhan had told The Express Tribune, warning that strict action would be taken against persons violating the election code of conduct.

The PML-N has fielded former finance minister Miftah Ismail in the by-poll, against PTI's Amjad Iqbal Afridi, Pakistan Peoples Party's Qadir Khan Mandokhail, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) Muhammad Mursaleen, Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) chief Mustafa Kamal and Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan's (TLP's) Nazir Ahmed, to name a few.

The Awami National Party, which parted ways with the PDM in support of the PPP, has announced support for Ismail in the NA-249 by-poll, and so has the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl.