LAHORE (Kashmir English): Counting of votes in by-elections on 13 National Assembly and Punjab Assembly seats is underway as the polling time ended at 5:00pm today.
Polling started at 8am amid tight security in high-stake elections. Most seats had fallen vacant after the disqualification of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers convicted for their alleged role in the May 9, 2023 riots following the arrest of former PM and PTI founding chairman, Imran Khan.
The six NA constituencies where polling took place include one in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (NA-18 Haripur), and the rest in Punjab — NA-96 (Faisalabad), NA-104 (Faisalabad), NA-129 (Lahore), NA-143 (Sahiwal) and NA-185 (Dera Ghazi Khan).
The seven Punjab Assembly constituencies where by-elections were held are PP-73 (Sargodha), PP-87 (Mianwali), PP-98 (Faisalabad), PP-115 (Faisalabad), PP-116 (Faisalabad), PP-203 (Sahiwal) and PP-269 (Muzaffargarh).
Lahore by-election
The NA-129 (Lahore-XIII) seat had fallen vacant following the death of former Punjab governor and PTI stalwart Mian Muhammad Azhar. His grandson Chaudhry Arsalan now contested the by-poll, while the PML-N fielded Hafiz Mian Muhammad Noman.
Faisalabad
There was by-election on two NA seats; NA-96 and NA-104, and three provincial seats — PP-98, PP-115 and PP-116.
