KARACHI , APRIL 29  : Polling for the by-election for National Assembly constituency NA-249- Karachi West-II is currently underway.

The polling started at 8 am and will continue till 5 pm without any break. Sindh government has announced a public holiday, today (Thursday) in NA-249 Karachi constituency due to by-election.

Amjad Afridi of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Miftah Ismail of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Qadir Khan Madokhel of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Mustafa Kamal of Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP), and Mohammad Mursaleen of Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) are among the 30 candidates taking part in the election in the constituency.

The number of registered voters in the constituency is 339,591 out of which 201,656 are male and 137,935 are female voters who will exercise their right of the vote today.

Read more: NA-249: ECP issues show-cause notice to PPP candidate over election code violation

The NA-249 seat had fallen vacant after Faisal Vawda of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) resigned from the National Assembly for his Senate seat.

Presiding officers had been directed that pictures of Form-45 be sent to returning officers in presence of polling agents of contesting candidates.

In the wake of rising COVID-19 cases, the ECP has asked the Karachi administration to appoint healthcare staff during the NA-249 by-election in order to effectively implement COVID SOPs during the polling process.