All set for NA-153 by-poll today
From Nadeem Shah
MULTAN: The Election Commission of Pakistan and the district administration have completed all arrangements for NA-153 (Jalalpur Pirwala) by-poll scheduled to be held today.
Talking to The News here on Wednesday, police officials said that CPO Azhar Ikram would monitor the election process and he had appointed four SPs for his assistance. As many as 7,329 policemen, including SPs, DSPs, inspectors, sub-inspectors, head constables, constables and policewomen, would perform security duties. The police officials said that 276 polling stations had been set up in the constituency. Of them, 75 polling stations had been marked as very sensitive while 49 polling stations had been listed in category ‘A’ and 152 in category ‘B’.
Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf chairman Imran Khan, Pakistan People’s Party senior vice-chairman Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader MNA Hamza Shahbaz has held public meetings in Jalalpur Pirwala. The PML-N has fielded Rana Qasim Noon while the PTI has issued ticket to Ghulam Abbas Khakhi and the PPP has fielded party district president Malik Akram Kanhun for the by-poll.
According to the Jalalpur Pirwala political observers, the successful PML-N strategy has created a room for the victory of the party candidate after the withdrawal of toughest independent candidate Dewan Ghulam Abbas Bokhari.
According to sources, an influential landowner, Lal Muhammad Joiya, has announced supporting the PML-N candidate after he is reportedly offered an MPA ticket in the next general elections.
A senior political worker, Rana Ahmad Nawaz, is of the view that low turnout is likely to hurt the PML-N. He, however, expects a tough contest among PML-N candidate Rana Qasim Noon, PPP candidate Malik Akram Kanhun and PTI candidate Ghulam Abbas Khakhi.
According to the Election Commission of Pakistan statistics, the Dewan family has captured the slot in the last three general elections - 2013, 2008 and 2002 - on the PML-N and the PML-Q tickets.
In 2013 general elections, the numbers of registered voters were 349,714 in the constituency. The PML-N received 44.70 per cent votes, while the PPP 42.69 per cent and the PTI 8.69 per cent.
In the 2008 general elections, the turnout in the constituency was 46.61 per cent. The PML-N obtained 2 per cent votes, the PPP 43 per cent and the PML-Q 44 per cent.
