Daily Times

After the general election on February 8, by-elections will be held in the country today, in which the candidates will stand on the seats left by the government candidates and the election will be held in 21 seats in ten districts of Punjab.

In these seats, 5 National Assembly and 16 seats in these ten districts of Lahore, Qasur, Chakwal, Sheikhupura, Gujrat, Bhakkar, Wazirabad, Narowal, Rahim Yar Khan, and Dera Ghazi Khan, Section 144 has also been implemented and there is strict security so that all kinds of incidents can be prevented and can be dealt with. Exhibition of weapons and air firing are also banned.

Elections will be held from Lahore on the seats vacated by Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Aleem Khan and others, in which one seat belongs to the National Assembly and the remaining 4 seats belong to the Provincial Assembly. Similarly, the vacated seat of Federal Minister Rana Tanvir Hussain from PP 139 Sheikhupura district is also included. Similarly, former Federal Minister Monas Elahi is also in the field and is determined to win. Every candidate is working day and night in his constituency. In some way, he could win on April 21.

Lahore is considered the stronghold of the PML-N and PTI.

The Muslim League (N) says that all these seats have been won by the PML-N and again the PML-N will be successful and take its candidates to the assemblies. Similarly, PTI says that today we will get back our seats which were taken away from PTI through rigging in the general election. Also, the government machinery is being used freely by the government and even today the government members will try to defeat the opponents by using the government machinery and will change Form 45 to Form 47 again and PTI’s seats will be taken away. But the PTI vote bank is still strong and the victory will be theirs. While the Punjab Police is also in the field for the law and order situation and security on Election Day.

More than 12,800 policemen will be deployed on behalf of Punjab Police at 921 polling stations in Lahore. A total of 1,579,473 voters will exercise their right to vote in five constituencies of Lahore.

They include 847,301 male and 732,172 female voters. District Sheikhupura: From the seat vacated by Federal Minister Rana Tanvir Hussain, his brother ex-MNA Rana Afzal Hussain is running against the PTI candidate Ijaz Hussain Bhatti and is continuing his efforts. Rana Afzal Hussain is the father of newly elected MNA Rana Anwar and he’s also working for his father’s election. There are total 123 polling stations in PP 139, on which 1670 police personnel are posted.

In PP 158, PTI-backed Monis Elahi is seen as a strong candidate compared to PML-N’s Nawaz Ladhar and contest is expected to be strong in between both candidates. Rana Munir from PP 164 and Yousuf Mayo are contesting from the vacant seat PP 164 from the Sunni Union Council. In the by-election, the constituencies of Lahore are important because Lahore is considered the stronghold of the PML-N and PTI and both the parties. Voters are also seen campaigning side by side with their leaders and candidates.

The battle for the seats of Lahore will take place today. Candidates in rural areas are also seen making efforts to defeat their opponents during the election campaign. In these areas factional politics is more visible.

The Interior Department of Punjab has also written a letter to the Federal Ministry of Interior for the closure of internet service, that the mobile phone service and internet service should be closed in the districts where elections are held today so as to be ready to deal with any untoward incident. For this, a copy of the Home Department has been sent to the Chief Secretary, IG Punjab and Chairman PTA. Anyway, it is to be seen which party’s candidate the people will use their right to vote like in the general elections.

They go out to win and succeed. Because every candidate has also promised his voters that after winning, they will do development work in their areas and solve their problems.

The writer is a Special Correspondent , Web Editor.