KARACHI: All arrangements have been finalised for presidential voting which will commence today in the Sindh Assembly. Sindh High Court (SHC) chief justice will preside over the polling process which will begin sharp at ten in the morning and continue till four in the evening. The 168 seats in the provincial assembly of Sindh include 130 general seats, 29 reserved seats for women and 9 seats for non-Muslims. However, the total number of votes that would be cast today to vote in Pakistan’s 13th president will be 163 since two parliamentarians, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) Dr Seema Zia and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan’s (MQM-P) Shahna Ashar have not been sworn in yet and three seats in the assembly, including one from Khairpur district and two from Karachi, have been lying vacant. Election was postponed in Karachi’s seat PS-87 Malir, after the death of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) ticket holder Sharif Ahmed Khan in a road accident wheras PS-11 is vacant because the winning candidate, Imran Ismail, resigned from the constituency after becoming the Governor of Sindh. The third vacant seat is Khairpur’s PS-30 from which the winning candidate Pir Syed Fazal Shah resigned after opting for a National Assembly seat he had won from. As per the Sindh Assembly documents, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has 97 members, PTI has 28 members, MQM-P has 20 seats, Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) has 14 seat, TLP has 3 seats while Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal has 1 parliamentarian in the Sindh Assembly. According to presidential electoral formula, PPP has 38.68 votes in the Sindh Assembly while PTI has 11.16 votes and MQM-Pakistan has 7.975 votes. Two members of Sindh Assembly who are currently in the jail including Sharjeel Memon and Javed Hanif would also be brought from prison to cast their votes in the presidential elections. Reportedly, orders have already been sent to produce Memon and Hanif. Meanwhile, all passes of the visitor’s gallery have been cancelled for security reasons. The Assembly building has also been handed over to Election Commission (EC) for the presidential polls. For security reasons, all the passes of visitors’ gallery have been cancelled and Assembly building is given under the control of Election Commission for presidential elections. Sindh Election Commissioner, Muhammad Yousif Khattak visited the assembly building to check the arrangements being made for the polls on Monday. While talking to the media, Khattak expressed his satisfaction over the security arrangements. He said that heavy contingents of police and ranger would be deployed on Election Day and private media will be allowed to cover the presidential elections. PTI’s presidential candidiates Arif Alvi is considered a strong candidate. If selected, he would be third president from Sindh in a row after Asif Zardari and Mamnoon Hussain. Published in Daily Times, September 4th 2018.