NA-151: Ishaq Bucha withdraws nomination for the Gilani-seat

Malik Ishaq Bucha was contesting on the seat as an independent candidate after PML-N refused to hand him a ticket.

MULTAN: Malik Ishaq Bucha, who was planning to contest the by-elections on NA-151, the Gilani-seat in Multan against former prime minister’s son, withdrew his nomination papers on Thursday in favour of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

According to a report by Express News, Bucha took the decision after meeting former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani. He was contesting on NA-151 as an independent candidate after his party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), reportedly refused to hand him a ticket.

The seat fell vacant after former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani was disqualified from his post by the Supreme Court in a contempt case. Gilani’s elder son Abdul Qadir Gilani and Shaukat Bosan of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) had filed papers to contest on the seat.

Earlier, Bucha had left PPP to join the PML-N to contest the seat. He had declared that he would not let Abdul Qadir “get a vote of sympathy from the public and make fools of them afterwards with corruption.”

ECP finalises arrangements for NA-151

The Election Commission of Pakistan(ECP) has finalised arrangements for by-polls in NA 151.

An ECP official told APP that the ECP has constituted a total of 245 polling stations including 62 male polling stations and 59 female polling stations whereas 123 combined polling stations have been made.

A total of 712 polling booths have been constituted including 388 for male and 324 for female voters.

In NA-151 constituency, the number of registered voters is 307,871, in which male registered voters are 167,791 while 140,080 female voters were registered.