By-polls on two NA seats today

33 candidates in the run in both the constituencies

KARACHI:

By-elections for both National Assembly seats in Karachi will be held on Sunday (today).

The polling will start at 8am to 5 p.m., with no break. As many as 11 candidates are contesting for NA-237 election while NA-239 has 22 candidates.

The PTI head, Imran Khan, will face candidates from the PPP and MQM Pakistan in both constituencies.

No polling location has been declared sensitive or very sensitive. All election materials, including ballot papers, have been given to the presiding officers.

The election results will be shown live on the screen via the result management system. As per the details, the seat was vacated by PTI Member National Assembly Capt Retd Jamil Muhammad Khan's resignation in NA-237 Malir. After that, PTI's Imran Khan, PPP's Abdul Hakeem Baloch, TLP's Samiullah Khan, PSP's Muhammad Amir Shekhani, and JUI(F)'s Muhammad Ismail besides independent candidates including Jameel Ahmed Khan, Tariq Aziz, Shariq Jamal, Khalid Mehmood Ali, Nauman Abdullah and Irshad Ali filed their nominations.

NA-237 has a total of 294,699 voters, with 165,913 male and 128,786 female voters. This constituency has 194 polling stations and 748 polling booths.

In the 2018 general election, the PTI's retired captain Jameel Muhammad Khan beat the PPP candidate with 33,522 votes. Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Abdul Hakeem Baloch could get 32,054 votes.

MQM's Dr. Nadeem Maqbool scored 14,264 votes, the PML-N's Zainul Abedin Ansari scored 14,230, TLP's Faheem Ahmed Hussaini scored 11,726 votes, and the MMA's Mohammad Islam scored 6,205 votes.

PPP's Abdul Hakeem Baloch is also running in the by-election for this seat in 2022, although he is now competing against Tehreek-e-Insaf head Imran Khan. This time, the PPP candidate has the backing and support of the MQM, the PML-N, and the JUI.

PTI chief Imran Khan, MQM-P's Nayyer Raza, TLP's Muhammad Yasin, PSP's Shariq Jamal, Muhajir Qaumi Movement's Khurram Maqsood, People's Party's Syed Imran Haider Abidi, JUI-F's Muhammad Ramzan, and Pak Muslim Alliance's Qaiser Iqbal are contesting in Korangi National Assembly Constituency NA 239 in Karachi while Muhammad Akram, Akhtar Hussain, Ansar Ahmed, Rehman Waheed Bajwa, Rehan Mansoor, Sikandar Khatun, Syed Sajid Tirmizi, Shaukatullah Farooqui, Muhammad Ehsan, Muhammad Asad Usmani, Muhammad Tariq, Muhammad Aamir Shekhani, Mushtaq Ahmed Ishtiaq Dhol and Maqbool Ahmed Azad are independent candidates.

This constituency has a total of 529,855 voters, of which 294,385 are male and 235,470 are female voters.

This time, the PPP candidate has the backing and support of the MQM, the PML-N, and the JUI.

The Election Commission has set up 340 polling stations and 1,360 voting booths for the by-elections.

There are 120 sensitive voting stations and 220 susceptible polling stations. In the 2018 general election, PTI's Akram Cheema beat MQM's Sohail Mansoor Khawaja by 69,161 votes. Sohail Mansoor scored 68,811 votes but lost by only 350 votes.

TLP's Syed Zaman Ali Jafari scored 30,111 votes, PML-N' Rana Muhammad Ehsan scored 19,617 votes, PPP's Syed Imran Haider Abidi scored 11,887 votes, PSP's Syed Nadeem Razi scored 4,389 votes, and Muhajir Qaumi Movement's Muhammad Naeem scored 2,008.

The MQM's candidate in this by-election has the support of People's Party, the PML-N, and the JUI.

The total number of voters in NA-239 is 529,855, with 235,470 women and 294,385 male voters. The constituency has 340 voting stations and 1,360 polling booths, with 120 polling stations classed as sensitive and 220 very sensitive.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, October 16^th, 2022.