LAHORE (Kashmir English): By-election in several Punjab and a Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) constituency would he held today (November 23).
Voting will take place for six National Assembly seats and seven Punjab Assembly seats.
By-election on National Assembly constituencies
NA-18 Haripur
NA-96 Faisalabad
NA-104 Faisalabad
NA-129 Lahore
NA-143 Sargodha
NA-185 Dera Ghazi Khan
Punjab Assembly constituencies
PP-73 Sargodha
PP-87 Mianwali
PP-98 Faisalabad
PP-15 Faisalabad
PP-116 Faisalabad
PP-203 Sahiwal
PP-269 Muzaffargarh
ECP has completed all preparations for polling. Ballot papers and other election material has been sent to polling stations under strict security arrangements.
Strict security has been put in place, with the army, Rangers, and Frontier Corps deployed on election duty.
Security personnel will be stationed outside polling stations, with special teams inside polling stations to ensure the integrity of the process.
By-elections in the constituencies will be held to fill seats that became vacant due to the disqualification or conviction of the previously elected representatives.
These seats became vacant due to the disqualification of members following their conviction by Anti-Terrorism Courts in cases related to the May 9, 2023 violent protests that occurred after the arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Haripur by-election
Over 750,000 registered voters of NA-18 Haripur will elect their new representative for the National Assembly.
The constituency covers the entire Haripur district, which includes the tehsils of Haripur, Ghazi, and Khanpur.
In terms of registered voters, it is the largest National Assembly constituency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the third largest in Pakistan after NA-67 Hafizabad and NA-118 Lahore-II.
The seat was vacated due to the disqualification of MNA Omar Ayub Khan, who was also the Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly. He won 2024 election with 194,429 votes, which constituted 54 percent of the polled votes.
In August, the ATC Faisalabad sentenced him in a case related to the violent protests of May 9, 2023, leading to his disqualification as MNA .
According to the Final List of Contesting Candidates (Form-33), nine candidates are contesting the by-election but actual contest is between Shehrnaz Omar Ayub, the wife of the disqualified Omar Ayub, and PML-N candidate Babar Nawaz.
