Preparations for Khushab by-polls completed

Punjab Assembly seat PP-84 fell vacant due to death of PML-N member

KHUSHAB:

Provincial election authorities have completed preparations for a by-election in the Punjab Assembly’s constituency PP-84 Khushab, which will be held on Wednesday.

The seat fell vacant due to the death of PML-N lawmaker Mohammad Waris Kallo who had won the elections in 2018 with 66,775 votes.

In all, 16 nomination papers were received for the by-elections, of which one was rejected, while six candidates withdrew their nominations.

The candidates include Ali Hussain Khan from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Mohammad Moazzam Sher from Pakistan Muslim League-N, Ghulam Habib Ahmed from Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians, Amjad Raza, Aurangzeb, Imran Haider Khan and Mohammad Ilyas Khan as independent candidates and Hafiz Muhammad Asghar Ali from the recently banned TLP.

Khurshid Alam has been appointed District Returning Officer and Shakeel Ahmed as Returning Officer. The constituency covers three tehsils of Khushab district, Nurpur Thal, Quaidabad and Khushab.

The total number of registered voters in the constituency is 292,687. There are 155,104 male and 137,583 female voters. A total of 229 polling stations will be set up in the constituency, including 27 for male voters, 26 for females and 176 joint.

All polling stations are geo-tagged via GIS. The training of election staff for the by-polls in the constituency has also been completed. The election staff includes 229 presiding officers, 666 assistant presiding officers and 666 polling officers.

The constituency has 14 polling stations declared highly sensitive with respect to security concerns, in addition to 43 sensitive and 172 normal. More than 2,800 police and 500 Rangers personnel have been deployed in the constituency for the polling day.

CCTV cameras will be installed at all sensitive polling stations.

Personnel of police and Rangers have been deployed with each presiding officer to accompany the results and polling records to the returning officer from the polling station.

In addition, a focal person of the district administration will accompany the polling record of each station to the office of the returning officer. Control rooms have been set up to monitor the electoral process. Local people will be able to register complaints on the phone number of the control room.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 4^th, 2021.