6 months ago
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Voting is underway connected Sunday (November 23, 2025) successful Pakistan for by-elections successful 13 National Assembly and Punjab Assembly seats amid choky security.
Out of the 13 seats, six are for the National Assembly (NA) and 7 are for the provincial seats.
Polling began astatine 8:00 a.m. and volition proceed without a interruption till 5:00 p.m., according to the polling docket announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
Most seats were declared vacant aft the disqualification of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers, who were convicted for their alleged engagement successful the May 9, 2023, attacks connected subject and civilian installations protesting the apprehension of their enactment chief, Imran Khan.
The NA constituencies are NA-96 (Faisalabad), NA-104 (Faisalabad), NA-129 (Lahore), NA-143 (Sahiwal) and NA-185 (Dera Ghazi Khan) from Punjab state and NA-18 (Haripur) from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
The 7 Punjab Assembly constituencies wherever by-polls are being held are PP-73 (Sargodha), PP-87 (Mianwali), PP-98 (Faisalabad), PP-115 (Faisalabad), PP-116 (Faisalabad), PP-203 (Sahiwal) and PP-269 (Muzaffargarh).
Punjab is the main battleground, and the authorities person deployed implicit 20,000 information personnel, including police, paramilitary Rangers, and Army troops.
Under the ECP's codification of conduct, equipped forces person been deployed extracurricular “most sensitive” polling stations. They volition stay successful quick-response mode astatine the remaining stations arsenic third-tier responders.
One cardinal contention is successful NA-18 (Haripur). The vacancy arose aft the disqualification of PTI lawmaker and its person of absorption successful the NA, Omar Ayub Khan, grandson of erstwhile subject ruler Field Marshal Ayub Khan.
Omar’s wife, Shehrnaz Omar, is successful the run, facing Babar Nawaz of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
Another cardinal constituency is NA-96 Faisalabad, wherever PML-N has fielded Muhammad Bilal Badar Chaudhry, member of Minister of State for Interior Tallal Chaudhry.
NA-129 Lahore is besides successful cross-hairs, wherever the spot fell vacant aft the decease of erstwhile Punjab politician and PTI stalwart Mian Muhammad Azhar. His grandson Chaudhry Arsalan is present contesting the bypoll, who is being challenged by PML-N's Hafiz Mian Muhammad Noman.
Another absorbing contention is astatine NA-185 Dera Ghazi Khan, wherever Dost Muhammad Khosa of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the PML-N's Mehmood Qadir Khan Laghari. The spot became vacant aft PTI's Zartaj Gul was convicted.
Though the result of these bypolls is not going to interaction the governmental set-up, analysts accidental it volition supply an absorbing barometer to measure the popularity of the ruling parties and their nemesis, PTI.
