By-elections for five National Assembly (NA) and seven Punjab Assembly (PA) seats will be held on Sunday (November 23).
As per the code of conduct devised by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the candidates will have to wind up their election campaigns by Friday night.
Elections will be held in NA-18, Haripur, NA-96 and NA-104, Faisalabad, NA-129, Lahore, NA-143, Sahiwal and NA-185, Dera Ghazi Khan.
Similarly, the provincial assembly seats on which elections will be held are: PP-73, Sargodha, PP-87, Mianwali, PP-98, Faisalabad, PP-115 and PP-116, Faisalabad, PP-203, Sahiwal and PP-269, Muzaffargarh.
High-level meeting in Peshawar
Also on Thursday, a high-level meeting was held in Peshawar to review arrangements for the by-election to be held in NA-18, Haripur.
Provincial Chief Election Commissioner Saeed Gull, Chief Secretary KP Shahab Ali Shah, IGP Police Zulfiqar Hameed, Secretary Home Muhammad Zubair, Commission Hazara Division Fayyaz Ali and other senior officials attended the meeting.
The meeting was given a detailed briefing on the election.
The chief election commissioner, on the occasion, informed the meeting of the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) concerns over the inflammatory speech made by KP Chief Minister Sohail Afridi at Havelian on Wednesday.
By-elections in Faisalabad
In Faisalabad, by-elections will be held for two NA and three provincial assembly seats.
There are only PTI-backed independent and the PML candidates in all these constituencies.
Over 1.9 million voters in the city will elect their representatives.
PML-N ticketholder Azad Ali Tabassum, from PP-98, Chak Jhumra, will have to defeat former Punjab minister Ajmal Cheema to secure his place in the provincial assembly.
Cheema enjoys the massive support of the Jat clan.
In Jaranwala, Bilal Badar Chaudhry, brother of Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry, will have to defeat former MNA Nawab Sher Wasair to reach the House.
Wasair has been doing politics for the last four decades and is expected to give tough time to the PML-N because of being a local.
PML-N looks stronger in urban areas of Faisalabad.
However, former leader of the opposition Raja Riaz’s son Raja Danial Ahmad may find it difficult to beat independent candidate Rana Adnan Javed.
Beating former MPA, Malik Asghar Ali Qaiser, in the election may prove to be a hard nut to crack for the son-in-law of Rana Sanaullah.
Another PML-N candidate Mian Tahir Jameel is up against former PML-N candidate Malik Muhammad Asghar.
By-election in NA-18, Haripur
Tough contest is on the cards between PTI-backed independent candidate Sheher Naz Umar Ayub Khan and the PML-N’s Babar Nawaz Khan.
In NA-185, Dera Ghazi Khan, PPP’s Sardar Daust Muhammad Khosa and the PML-N’s Mehmood Qadir Laghari are competing for the seat.
PTI has boycotted the election in the constituency.
By-elections in Lahore
In NA-129, Lahore, the seat, which had fallen vacant following the death of former Punjab governor and PTI stalwart Mian Muhammad Azhar, the latter’s grandson Chaudry Arsalan is vying for the seat, while the PML-N has fielded Hafiz Mian Muhammad Noman as its candidate.
There is another PTI candidate in the constituency as well whose name is Bajash Ahmad Niazi due to which there are fears that the PTI vote bank might split to the favour of the PML-N.
