Polling underway for second round of Pakistan by-polls

Lahore - A total of 858,866 male and female voters are eligible to cast their ballots.

Voting for Pakistan's second round of by-polls in three National and Provincial Assembly constituencies in Karachi and Peshawar were underway on Sunday, amidst strict security.

A total of 858,866 male and female voters are eligible to cast their ballots in the by-polls for the National Assembly constituency of NA-247 Karachi and the provincial assembly seats PS-111 Karachi and PK-71 Peshawar, reports Dawn news.

Twelve candidates are in the fray for the NA-247 seat, while 15 for PS-111 and five for PK-71.

The three seats were vacated after the candidates elected on them in the July 25 general elections tendered their resignations. 

All three of the winners belonged to the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI).

Arif Alvi, who was elected from NA-247, resigned after being elected the country's President. 

Imran Ismail, who had won from PS-111 (Karachi South), gave up his seat after being appointed as the Sindh governor, while Shah Farman resigned from PK-71 Peshawar after being named the governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The time period of campaigning for the by-polls ended at 12 midnight on Friday. 

Candidates were barred from holding rallies, corner meetings or conducting door-to-door campaign after the deadline.

The first phase was held on October 14 for 11 National and 24 Provincial Assemblies where the ruling PTI and the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) managed to win most of the seats.

• Pakistan