Political parties intensify activities as ECP announces by-poll schedule

After the Election Commission of Pakistan announced on Thursday the schedule for the by-poll in Karachi’s National Assembly constituency NA-249, political parties have intensified their activities for the closely watched contest.

The seat fell vacant after the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Faisal Vawda resigned after casting his vote in the Senate elections on March 3. The by-election will be held on April 29, according to the ECP. Candidates can submit their nomination papers between March 13 and March 17.

Candidates withdrawing from the contest will be able to take pack their papers by April 7. The scrutiny process will start on March 25. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, the Pakistan Muslim Leagu-Nawaz, the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan are the four major political parties in the constituency.

Vawda had won the seat during the 2018 general election after defeating PML-N leader and former chief minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif by a narrow margin. The last NA-249 election had been a close contest, with Vawda securing 35,344 votes to defeat Shahbaz, who polled 34,626 votes.

TLP candidate Mufti Abid Mubarak and MQM-P candidate Aslam Shah had ranked third and fourth after bagging 23,981 and 13,534 votes respectively. The Jamaat-e-Islami’s Syed Ataullah Shah had ranked fifth by securing 10,307 votes, while Pakitan Peoples Party candidate Qadir Mandokhel polled a mere 7,236 votes and ranked sixth in the competition.

The ANP and the JUI-F had formally announced their support for Shahbaz in the constituency in the 2018 polls.

This time, the PML-N has fielded its central leader and former federal minister, Miftah Ismail, for the by-poll and is confident to win the support of the Pakistan Democratic Movement’s component parties, particularly the PPP, the ANP and the JUI-F. The PTI has also started receiving applications from aspiring candidates, and in this regard a five-member parliamentary board has been formed to finilase a candidate to retain the constituency.

The board comprises federal minister Ali Zaidi, PTI Karachi president Khurrum Sher Zaman, former opposition leader Firdous Shamim Naqvi and Karachi secretary-general Saeed Afridi. The PPP has also sought applications from candidates seeking the party’s ticket for the NA-249 by-election.

On Wednesday, the JUI-F held a meeting to discuss the upcoming by-election. The participants of the meeting, headed by the JUI-F’s District West and former MPA Maulana Umar Sadiq, discussed the names of potential candidates from the by-poll. The participants included the party’s provincial secretary general, Maulana Rashid Soomro, former MPA Sadiq and Hafiz Naeem Shomozai.

But Sindh leaders of the PPP and the JUI-F told The News that their parties would withdraw their candidates in favour of the PML-N’s candidate, Miftah Ismail, after the decision of the PDM to support each other in the by-poll.