Sindh government would provide all possible support to facilitate and assist the Provincial Election Commission (PEC) in conducting the by-elections.
This was announced by Sindh Chief Secretary Syed Mumtaz Ali Shah on Friday as he presided over a high-level meeting convened to discuss the arrangements being made for by-elections in Sindh. “All efforts should be invested in order to successfully conduct the by-elections in compliance with the code of conduct issued by PEC,” he said.
The by-elections would be held on October 14, 2018 and October 21, 2018 in Karachi and Khairpur for a total of five seats including two National Assembly (NA) seats (NA-243 and NA-247) and three Sindh Assembly seats (PS-30 Khairpur-V, PS-87 Malir and PS-III, Karachi South-V).
During the meeting Sindh CS stressed on the need to complete the by-election process in a peaceful and transparent manner. He maintained that the Sindh administration would play a vital role and coordinate with law enforcement agencies (LEAs) in this regard. Furthermore, he advised the relevant authorities to install CCTV cameras in 1490 polling stations including all sensitive polling stations and booths.
Furthermore, the CS directed Karachi and Sukkur commissioners to conduct meetings with deputy commissioners as well as DIGs and SSPs in order to discuss the by-election arrangements. CS Mumtaz also instructed the Health Department to ensure health and medical facilities around the electoral areas in order to facilitate needy people. It was decided in the meeting that the deputy commissioners of the districts where by-elections were being conducted would work as District Monitoring Officers (DMOs) during the by-polls.
Provincial Election Commissioner M.Yousuf Khatak, Sindh IGP Kaleem Iman SMBR Muhammad Hussain Syed, Health ACS M.Usman Chahar, Home Secretary A. Kabeer Kazi, Karachi Commissioner Sualeh Farooqui, Commissioner Sukkur M. Rafeeq and other relevant officials attended the meeting.
It is worth mentioning that NA-243 (Karachi East) has been vacated by the resignation of Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan, while NA-247 (Karachi South II) was vacated by President Arif Alvi. Meanwhile, PS-III was vacated by Sindh Governor Imran Ismail.
As per details, by-election for NA-243 Karachi East-II, PS-30 Khairpur-V and PS-87 Malir-I shall be conducted on October 14, 2018 and by-poll for NA-247 Karachi South-II and PS-III Karachi South V will be held on October 21, 2018.
Published in Daily Times, September 6th 2018.