NA-249 by-election will be held on April 29

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday released a schedule for by-election in NA-249, announcing that the polling would be held on April 29, reported 24NewsHD TV channel. 

NA-249 is a Karachi constituency that fell vacant after PTI newly-elected Senator Faisal Vawda resigned from the lower house of the parliament after casting vote in Senate elections held on March 3.

The ECP said nomination papers for NA-249 by-election can be submitted from March 13 to March 17 while scrutiny of the papers will be completed by March 25 and candidates can challenge the Returning Officer’s (RO) decisions in Appellate Tribunal by March 29.

The ECP said the final list of contesting candidates will be issued on April 6 and candidates can take back their papers by April 7. The ECP will allot electoral symbols to the candidates by April 8.  

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Secretary-General and former federal minister Miftah Ismael also launched the election campaign in his constituency NA-249 but opposition alliance PDM is yet to announce its formal support for him. 

جنرل سیکریٹری پاکستان مسلم لیگ(ن)سندھ مفتاح اسماعیل کا NA-249' کا دورہ ضلع کیماڑی کے پارٹی عہدیداروں,سابق چیئرمینوں اور کارکنوں سے ملاقاتیں pic.twitter.com/aGyxZS4FjH

— Khurram Abbas (@KhurramBhatti01) March 10, 2021

On the other hand, the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has formed a parliamentary board to award a ticket for the upcoming NA-249 Karachi by-poll.

It may be recalled that in the 2018 general elections the PTI’s Vawda defeated former Punjab chief minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif by a narrow margin.

The last NA-249 election was a close contest, with Vawda securing 35,344 votes to defeat Shehbaz who was polled 34,626 votes.

Reportedly, NA-249 is among the constituencies of Karachi that border Balochistan and is exclusively composed of the entire Baldia Town, comprising Pashtun, Hazarewal (Hindko) and Muhajir populated neighbourhoods with a few Baloch and Sindhi villages.

Earlier, the ECP announced that by-poll in NA-75 (Daska) would be held now on April 10 instead of March 18.

Zeeshan Bhatti reported this news.