ISLAMABAD: Polling for 21 national and provincial assembly seats concluded a 5pm on Sunday with strict security arrangements made by the federal government to ensure a smooth voting process.
The government approved the deployment of the civil armed forces and Pakistan Army troops during the polling process. The civil armed forces and army troops will provide second- and third-tier security respectively on the polling day.
A clash between Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) workers in Narowal’s PP-54 constituency resulted in the death of a PML-N worker.
Muhammad Yousaf, aged 60, lost his life after being struck on the head with a stick during the fight. Despite being taken to a local hospital, he succumbed to his injuries.
Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar strongly condemned the incident.
Deceased Yousaf was a worker of the PML-N, said the minister in a news statement while expressing condolences for the bereaved family over the demise of the party worker.
“Muhammad Yousaf’s blood will not go in vain,” he said while vowing to bring the killers to justice.
According to a notification, the civil armed forces and army troops were deployed in 21 constituencies from April 20 to 22.
The Interior Ministry issued these orders after the approval of the federal government.
Polling began at 8am and continued till 5pm without any break.
In Punjab, 174 candidates are vying for positions, while Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has 49 candidates in the race. Punjab boasts 21.77 million male and 18.67 million female registered voters who will exercise their democratic rights.
Meanwhile, K-P has 1.471 million voters who can participate in the by-elections. Punjab will host 663 male, 649 female, and 1289 joint polling stations, with a total of 892 polling stations set up in K-P.
For the National Assembly constituency NA-196 in Sindh, 4.239 million voters are eligible to vote. Five candidates will compete in this constituency, which will have 933 polling stations.
In Balochistan, 125 polling stations have been established across two provincial constituencies, where 163,000 voters will cast their votes.
A control room has been set up in the provincial election commissioners’ offices to address any concerns. Additionally, the installation of CCTV cameras at sensitive polling stations was completed as well.
The federal government has also decided to temporarily suspend cellular services in certain districts of Punjab and Balochistan during the by-elections.
In a statement, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said that in line with the directions of the interior ministry, cellular services will be temporarily suspended in specific districts of the two provinces for two days.
The authority added that the decision had been made to safeguard the integrity and security of the electoral process.
