By elections in Sindh: 85 candidates to contest for national, provincial seats

KARACHI: Sindh Election Commissioner Muhammad Yousaf Khan Khattak on Tuesday said the by-elections on two National and three Sindh Assembly seats would be held on October 14 and 21, respectively.

Talking to APP, he said officers of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) would perform their duties in the by-elections as District Returning Officers (DROs) and Returning Officers (ROs).

As many as 85 candidates would contest in by-elections on five national and provincial assemblies seats in which over 14000 registered voters would cast their votes, Yousaf said.

He said the Code of Conduct formulated for the general election would be implemented in the by-elections while journalists would be issued special passes for coverage of the polls.

Security personnel would be deployed in and outside the polling stations.

By-elections for PS-30 Khairpur, PS- 87 Malir and NA-243 would be held on October 14 while polling on NA-247 and PS-111 would be held on October 21. He informed that due to shortage of staff in general election, the ECP appoints DROs and ROs from judiciary. However, in the by-elections the officers of ECP would perform their duties as DROs and ROs.

Replying to a question, Yousaf said Ali Asghar and Syed Nadeem Haider would perform as DROs in four constituencies of Karachi and provincial seat of Khairpur respectively while Pervez Kalhoro forNA-243, Imtiaz Kalhoro for NA-247, Zaheer Ahmed for PS-111, Niaz Ahmed for PS-30 Khairpur would perform as ROs.

Sharing numbers of candidates for the said constituencies, he informed that 21 candidates for NA-243, 12 candidates for NA-247, 11 candidates for PS-30 Khairpur, 26 candidates for PS-87 Malir and 16 candidates for PS-111 would contest the by-elections.

It needs to be mentioned here that on NA-243 Chairman PTI Imran Khan, on NA-247 PTI candidate Dr. Arif Alvi, on PS-111 Imran Ismail of PTI, on PS-30 Khairpur Fazal Ali Shah of PPP were elected in general election while the polls had been postponed on PS-26 Malir after a TLP candidate passed away in a road mishap.