KARACHI: Representatives of all major political parties have expressed optimism about winning the national and provincial seats up for grabs in Karachi’s by-elections scheduled to be held on October 14. Political parties and independents set to contest in the upcoming by-polls have also begun their campaigning. In Karachi, candidates will be contesting for two National Assembly seats (NA-243 and NA-247) and two provincial constituencies (PS-111 and PS-87). Interestingly, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) have failed at pitching a joint candidate despite being coalition partners. On the other hand, two major opposition parties Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) announced that they would be fielding joint candidates in the by-polls. Senior PPP leader Qamar Zaman Kaira said, “PML-N will support People’s Party in Karachi and Rahim Yar Khan, while PPP will support N-League in rest of Punjab.””The two parties will also run a joint election campaign,” he added. National Assembly seats Heated contest is expected between candidates of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP),Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) in NA-243 which was vacated by Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan when he assumed his office. The seat was secured by Imran Khan who won against MQM-P’s Syed Ali Raza Abidi by a landslide margin in the July 25 general elections. Imran Khan secured 91,358 votes while Abidi got 24,082 votes and stood second to the PTI chairman. In these by-polls, 22 candidates would be contesting against each other for NA-243. PTI awarded ticket to ‘Fix It’ campaigner Muhammad Alamgir Khan. MQM-P has fielded Amir Waliuddin Chishti whereas TLP’s Syed Nawazul Huda, Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) Hakim Ali Jaskani and Pak Sarzameen Party’s (PSP) Syed Asif Hasnain are also in the race. A total of 402,731 voters have been registered, of whom 211,510 are male and 191,221 are female.NA-243 (Karachi East-II) comprises Karachi University, Bahadurabad, Sharafabad, Liaquat National Hospital, Aga Khan University Hospital, Faizan-e-Madina, Expo Centre, Hassan Square, Panama Centre, Baitul Mukkaram Masjid, Shanti Nagar, Mujahid Colony, Alladin Park, Metroville, Gulshan-e-Iqbal and Gulistan-e-Jauhar. The other National Assembly seat, NA-247 was vacated by President Arif Alvi after he assumed office. PTI’s Aftab Hussain Siddiqui, MQM-P’s Sadiq Iftikhar, PPP’s Qaiser Khan Nizamani, Sunni Tehreek Pakistan’s (STP) Ali Nawaz and PSP’s Arshad Vohra will be contesting over the seat in the October 14 by-polls. In addition to these ticket holders, a total of eight independent candidates will also be locking horns over the seat. These include Muhammad Ayaz, Muhammad Sharif Awan, Abdul Jalil Khan, Tahir Ashraf Hashmi, Syed Mujahid Rasool, Shaikh Samir Mir and Syed Adil Askari. The number of registered voters in NA-247 is 543,964. Defence, Clifton Cantonment Board, Sadder, Karachi Cantonment and Arambagh, come under the domain of NA-247 (Karachi South II). Provincial seats The current Sindh Governor Imran Ismail won from PS-111 during the July 25 election. However, the PTI leader vacated the seat after he assumed office as the Sindh Governor. Now, PS-111 which consists of Civil Lines and Clifton Cantonment Board will be contested for by 16 candidates including MQM-P ticket holder Jehanzeb Mughal, TLP’s Sikander Agar, PTI’s Shehzad Qureshi, STP’s Ali Nawab, PML-N’s Muhammad Zahid Hussain, PPP’s Muhammad Fayyaz Pirzada and PSP’s Yasiruddin. In addition to these party ticket holders, nine independents have also joined the race in hopes of getting voted in. The independents include social activist Muhammad Jibran Nasir, Asadullah Unar, Odhomal, Syed Mujahid Rasool, Tahir Afsar Hashmi, Tahir Afsar Khan, Taha Ahmed Khan, Muhammad Ayaz, and Muhammad Nawaz Mandokhail. Out of the 178,965 voters registered in PS-111, 94719 are male while 84,246 voters are females. Elections in PS-87 were postponed following the demise of TLP candidate Sharif Ahmed Khan. Now, a total of 26 candidates including 16 independents will be contesting for the Sindh Assembly seat. PTI has fielded Qadir Bux Khan Gabol while TLP has fielded Qurban Ali. Sindh United Party’s (SUP) Ghulam Muhammad Jawed, PML-N’s Abdul Khalil Brohi, PPP’s Muhammad Sajid, PSP’s Muhammad Saleem, MQM-Pakistan’s Khalida Ateeb, Awami National Party’s (ANP) Saiqa Noor, Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal’s (MMA) Hamdullah, and Grand Democratic Alliance’s (GDA) Waliur Rehman will be contesting in the by-polls. Independent candidates include Pervaiz, Hussain Bukhsh Jokhio, Khair Muhammad Magsi, Rao Muhammad Zubair, Syed Ayaz Ali Shah, Shoukat Ali Jatt, Abdul Hafeez Jokhio, Ali Ahmed Jokhio, Imran Malik, Farzana Parveen, Mubarak Gabol, Muhammad Siddique, Muhammad Essa Jokhio, Muhammad Naveed Shahid, Nazar Ali Magsi and Maher Ali Shah. The Malir-based constituency has a total of 14,6852 votes out of whom 83,992 are male and 62,860 female. Published in Daily Times, October 12th 2018.