After boycotting Landhi by-election, PTI to contest NA-245 District East by-poll

After boycotting the NA-240 by-poll in Karachi’s District Korangi held on Thursday, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has announced that it will take part in the by-poll for NA-245, a National Assembly constituency in District East of the city that fell vacant after the death of PTI MNA and television personality Aamir Liaquat Hussain.

The Election Commission of Pakistan has notified July 27 to be the date of the by-poll.

PTI leader and former Sindh governor Imran Ismail announced the PTI’s decision to take part in the by-election at a press conference on Saturday. He was flanked by Haleem Adil Sheikh, the opposition leader in the Sindh Assembly.

“The PTI will retain NA-245 after winning the by-poll with a great margin because Karachi’s residents have completely rejected other political parties, including the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan,” said Ismail.

He added that by-polls were conducted on Sunday elsewhere in the country but due to some strange reason, the ECP conducted by-polls in Karachi on a working day. “July 27 is also a working day and the ECP should conduct it on Sunday so that the voter turnout could be satisfactory.”

Terming the Pakistan Peoples Party-led Sindh government oppressive, Ismail said that despite being in power in Sindh for 14 years, the PPP failed to provide even basic necessities to the residents of the province.

The former governor also criticised the Sindh government over ‘fake cases’ registered against Sheikh.

Meanwhile, the PTI Sindh chapter is set to hold a protest rally today (Sunday) on Shahrah-e-Quaideen against the rising inflation. The decision to hold the protest was taken following a direction from PTI Chairman Imran Khan.

A meeting was held in connection with preparations for the protest. It was chaired by PTI Sindh chief and former federal minister Ali Zaidi. Former finance minister Shaukat Tareen, Ismail, Sheikh, PTI Karachi president Bilal Ghaffar and other party leaders attended the meeting.