By-elections in six National Assembly (NA) and seven Punjab Assembly (PA) constituencies will be held tomorrow, it was reported on Saturday.
The elections will be held in National Assembly constituencies NA-18 Haripur, NA-96 Faisalabad, NA-104 Faisalabad, NA-129 Lahore, NA-143 Sahiwal and NA-185 DG Khan.
The Punjab Assembly constituencies are PP-73 Sargodha, PP-87 Mianwali, PP-98 Faisalabad, PP-115 Faisalabad, PP-116 Faisalabad, PP-203 Sahiwal and PP-269 Muzaffargarh.
On the other hand, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is supplying election-related material to the polling stations in these constituencies under tight security.
In NA-185, Dera Ghazi Khan, where PPP’s Dost Muhammad Khosa and the PML-N’s Mehmood Qadir Khan Laghari are the candidates, four polling stations have been declared ‘extremely sensitive’, 53 sensitive while 169 fall in the normal category.
Foolproof security arrangements have been made in the constituency as 3,000 police personnel will perform duties at 226 polling stations.
Besides that, Elite Force, Ladies Police, Reserve contingents will also be deployed.
Apart from that, contingents of the Pakistan Army and Punjab Rangers will be the part of Quick Response Force.
In PP-269, Muzaffargarh, over 1,700 police personnel will perform duties.
The polling will begin at 8:00 AM and will continue until 5:00 PM.
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.
