Low turnout mars by-polls

Rawalpindi : The overall turnout during the by-elections in two constituencies of Rawalpindi on Sunday remained relatively low. In many polling stations, only a handful of votes were cast till the filing of this report.

The final turnout will be estimated late night after the compilation of the polling stations’ result.

Deputy Commissioner (DC), Rawalpindi Dr. Umar Jahangir and City Police Officer (CPO) Abbas Ahsen visited several polling stations in Rawalpindi to monitor security arrangements.

Talking to media persons, the deputy commissioner said that polling was held in a peaceful manner as they did not receive any complaint of bad incident. Total 13 candidates were in the run for by-elections in NA-60, Rawalpindi-IV and NA-63, Rawalpindi-VII, two constituencies of Rawal-pindi District.

Army Jawans and police personnel had taken full control of all polling stations to hold fair and free elections. Total 76 polling stations in Rawalpindi were declared highly sensitive where personnel had been deployed in larger numbers for the by-elections. The main contest for NA-60 between Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s candidate Sheikh Rashid Shafique and Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), Sajjad Khan, while other contestants vying for the seat included, Tehreek Labbaik Pakistan’s candidate, Zahid Aqeel, Pakistani Awami League’s Asghar Ali Mubarak, and independent candidates Muhammad Qaiser Mir Dad Khan, Aftab Ahmed Qureshi, Tehmina Sajjad Khan and Dr Muhammad Azhar Aslam.

While for NA-63, five candidates were competing including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf candidate Mansoor Hayat Khan, Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians candidate Syed Ishrat Ali Zaidi, Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) candidate Aqeel Malik, Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan candidate Qurban Ali, and independent candidate Syed Haider Ali Shah.