PML-N secures most wards in Korangi Creek cantonment

Although an overwhelming number of political workers of various parties was seen carrying out campaign for the local bodies’ elections in the Cantonment Board Korangi Creek, it did not convince many people to leave homes to cast their votes as the voter turnout remained quite low.

According to political workers, the voter turnout remained very low. They said they were expecting the number of voters to increase in the second half of the polling time, but no significant change occurred in the turnout.

Among the five wards of the cantonment, the highest political activity was observed in Ward-IV as the central election office of the PTI was located there and the last vice president of the cantonment board, Nasrullah, was also contesting the election there.

Earlier, the Korangi Creek Cantonment Board comprised only one ward, which is now divided in five deferent wards. Talking with The News, contesting candidates, residents and political workers said the biggest problems of the Korangi cantonment were unavailability of clean drinking water, overflowing manholes and heaps of garbage on streets.

Some of them said that Korangi was perhaps the most neglected cantonment of Karachi where even the basic amenities were missing. For the polls in the Ward-I comprising the sectors A and B, around six polling stations with 12 polling booths were established for a total of 6,524 voters, including 3,655 male and 2,869 female voters.

The contesting candidates included Aslant Malik Azeem of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Muhammad Saleem Awan of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Tariq Saeed of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Gul Sher of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Nouman of the Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) and Adnan Islam of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P). According to unofficial results, the MQM-P candidate won.

In the Ward-II of the Korangi cantonment comprising the sectors C and D, the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) was also in the fray. The total number of voters in the ward was 5,904, including 3,301 male and 2,603 female voters, for whim 10 polling stations with 20 polling booths had been set up.

The contesting candidates included Arsalan Zafar of the TLP, Shoukat Khan Swati of the PML-N, Raja Haseeb of the PTI, Muhammad Ibrahim of the MQM-P, Shehzad Akhtar of the JI, and Noushad Khan Tanoli of the PPP. According to unofficial results, the PML-N candidate was the winner.

In the Ward-III, the political parties had set up their stalls close to each other and children in some streets were seen holding flags of different parties and chanting slogans in favour of their candidates. The candidates included Hassan Zeb of the PML-N, Kamran Khan of the PTI, Jahangir Khan of the JI, Nasir Sheikh of the PPP and Farhan Riaz of the TLP. The PTI won in this ward as per the unofficial results.

A stall was also set up by an independent candidate in the Ward-III comprising some streets of the sectors C, D and E and F. The total number of voters in the ward were 4,203, of whom 2,407 were male and 1,796 female. A total of six polling stations with 12 polling booths were established.

The contesting candidates in the Ward-IV that comprises the sectors G and F included Aqeel Gul of the JI, Amir Abbasi of the PPP, Arif Abbasi of the PTI, Samiullah Khan of the MQM-P, Nasrullah of the PML-N and Raees Akhtar of the TLP. The PPP won here, according to the unofficial results.

The streets in the ward were filled with flags of political parties. There were many political workers sitting at camps and election offices. The total number of voters in the ward was 2,819, including 1,612 male and 1,207 female voters. There were four polling stations with eight polling booths. The smallest ward of the cantonment was the Ward-V, in which the number of the the registered voters was 1,974, including 1,066 male and 908 female voters. According to the unofficial results, PML-N candidate Malik Javed Iqbal won the election in the Ward-V.