Polling underway for second round of Pakistan by-polls

Voting for Pakistan's second round of by-polls in three National and Provincial Assembly constituencies in Karachi and Peshawar were underway on Sunday, amidst strict security.

A total of 858,866 male and female voters are eligible to cast their ballots in the by-polls for the National Assembly constituency of NA-247 Karachi and the provincial assembly seats PS-111 Karachi and PK-71 Peshawar, reports Dawn news.

Twelve candidates are in the fray for the NA-247 seat, while 15 for PS-111 and five for PK-71.

The three seats were vacated after the candidates elected on them in the July 25 general elections tendered their resignations.

All three of the winners belonged to the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI).

Arif Alvi, who was elected from NA-247, resigned after being elected the country's President.

Imran Ismail, who had won from PS-111 (Karachi South), gave up his seat after being appointed as the Sindh governor, while Shah Farman resigned from PK-71 Peshawar after being named the governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The time period of campaigning for the by-polls ended at 12 midnight on Friday.

Candidates were barred from holding rallies, corner meetings or conducting door-to-door campaign after the deadline.

The first phase was held on October 14 for 11 National and 24 Provincial Assemblies where the the ruling PTI and the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) managed to win most of the seats.

--IANS

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