Command and control room set up for NA-246 by-poll

KARACHI: Authorities have set up a command and control room at the office of the Deputy Commissioner Central to monitor arrangements during by-elections at Karachi's NA-246 constituency on April 23.

The control room began functioning Wednesday morning, a day before the highly-anticipated by-election takes place, and presiding officers had started arriving at the DC office for election material.

Police and other officials will be present during polling day at the control room, which has been equipped with wireless sets, dedicated phone lines and television sets for monitoring.




A police official at the control room said a special hotline – 99260050 – has been set up where citizens can call to complain or inform officials about any irregularities that they notice during the election.

Meanwhile, the ECP and NADRA’s ‘8300 SMS Service’ has been set up to help registered voters in NA-246 to check the status of their votes and particulars. Voters are able to send an SMS to 8300 and receive information about their block code, their registered voter number and polling station.

The by-election is set to take place on Thursday, with electioneering suspended 24 hours before polling day.

A public holiday has been announced in Karachi’s district Central on Thursday to allow citizens to cast their votes.