Daily Times

The Sindh government on Tuesday announced a public holiday on April 29 (Thursday) in NA-249 Karachi constituency due to by-elections.

As per the notification issued by the provincial government, April 29 will be a public holiday in NA-249 Karachi constituency on account of a by-election to facilitate the voters to cast their votes.

The arrangements for the by-polls in the constituency have been finalized by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). The by-poll in the constituency is scheduled for April 29 and the electioneering in the constituency will culminate at midnight of 27 and 28 April.

There are a total of 339,591 registered voters in the constituency which include 201,656 male and 137,935 female voters. A total of 276 polling stations consisting of 796 polling booths have also been established.

In the wake of rising Covid-19 cases, the ECP has earlier asked the Karachi administration to appoint healthcare staff during the NA-249 by-election in order to effectively implement Covid SOPs during the polling process.

Major political parties including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League (N), MQM-Pakistan have fielded their candidates for the by elections.

The NA-249 seat had fallen vacant after Faisal Vawda of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) resigned from the National Assembly for his Senate seat.

In the 2018 general elections, Faisal Wawda defeated PML N President Mian Shahbaz Sharif after a tough contest. The PTI won the seat by just 718 votes.