Kashmiri refugees to cast votes in Karachi
Placards of candidates are hung on a building ahead of election of regional assembly planned to be on July 25, in Azad Kashmir, Pakistan on July 18, 2021. PHOTO: AA
Stage is set for the general elections for two seats of refugees of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, LA 40 Wadi 1 and LA 34 Jammu 1, being held in Sindh and Balochistan today on Sunday July 25.
According to RO Syed Nadeem Haider, election materials have been delivered in Karachi and strict security arrangements have been made for the delivery of election materials.
As many as 1956 male and 1948 female among total 3904 registered voters in Karachi on two seats LA-34 Jammu-I and LA-40 Kashmir Valley-I, would be facilitated to exercise their right of franchise for the general election of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, scheduled to be held on July 25.A total 30 polling stations have been established in the areas including Soldier Bazar, Tipu Sultan, Zaman Town, Shah Faisal Coloney, Sharafi Goth, Bin Qasim, Steel Town, Gadap City, Jauharabad, Peerabad and other areas of all seven districts of the metropolis to facilitate the voters.
Refugees from Azad Jammu and Kashmir Valley settled across Pakistan including Karachi are being provided opportunities to exercise their right of vote. These refugees are going to elect 12 members of the AJK's Legislative Assembly on July 25.
Read more: 12 refugee seats become talking point in AJK polls
The LA 34 Jammu 1 constituency covers 48 districts of Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan while LA 40 represents AJK voters from 24 districts of Balochistan and Sindh.
The election commission has finalised all the arrangements for polling while polling material has also been provided to the returning officers (ROs).
LA 34 Jammu 1 consists of 19 districts of Sindh, five districts of Balochistan and 24 districts of Punjab where the number of registered voters is 17,761 out of which 1,027 voters are from Sindh, 546 from Balochistan and 16,188 voters are from Punjab.
A total of 212 polling booths have been set up in 121 polling stations for voters in this constituency. Riaz Ahmed of PTI, Nasir Hussain Dar of PML-N, Zahid Iqbal of PPP and Shah Abdul Latif Faisal of PSP are in the fray for this seat while Bilal Mukhtar Butt Javed Iqbal, Chaudhry Abdul Qadir, Chauhan, Raja Zaheer Ahmed, Sardar Karam Dad Khan, Suleman Ali, Abdul Rashid Mirza, Fazlur Rehman, Muhammad Tahir Khokhar and Muhammad Ajaib are competing each other in the polls.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 25th, 2021.