KARACHI: 339,591 (2,16,056 male and 1,37,935 female) registered voters of NA-249 constituency are expected to cast their votes today in order to elect their representatives.
While 30 aspirants are vying for the votes to grab the coveted seat (vacated by Faisal Vawda who resigned from NA after fetching a Senate seat) the real clash will take place between PML-N’s Miftah Ismail and PSP’s Mustafa Kamal. In 2018 polls Vawda mustered 35,344 votes up. Although NA-249 harbors 7,82,776 citoyens, only 43% have got themselves registered as voters. And it is yet to be seen how many out of those will bother to go to the polling stations today.
(Urdu speaking) Mohajirs, Pathans, Kahsmiris and Seraikis – belonging to the working class – inhibit Delhi Colony, Mujahid Colony, Baldia Colony and Saeedabad etc. As soon as one enters these areas (for instance, Baldia) the visitor is welcomed by the foul smell of sewerage water. No MNA has so far attempted to fix the sewerage system of this constituency nor bothered to build a public hospital. Then there is perpetual lack of water, dilapidated roads, and street crime including drug pushing. Many even insinuate that the mohallah called Mujahid Colony even happens to harbor militants (thus Mujahid or combatants’ Colony).
Information Minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain has taken to the Twitter to claim: “All the polls conducted in connection with the NA249 elections in Karachi show that the PTI has the upper hand over all the parties. Inshallah, this day will be the day of the PTI”. Interestingly, Imran Khan only bagged 2037 votes when he contested here back in 1997 from the Constituency (known as NA-184 at that time). In 2008 PPP-P’s Abdul Qadir Patel got 56,000 votes.
In 2013 MQM’s Muhammad Salman Baloch got 39,000 votes. In 2018 Faisal Vawda got 35,000 votes beating PML-N’s Shehbaz Sharif who pathetically managed to get 723 votes. In the same polls the (now proscribed entity) TLP got 23, 981 votes. As the specter of COVID-19 is looming all over the country, ECP has strictly ordered the concerned authorities make sure that the SOPs were implemented properly. The Karachi administration had announced a public holiday in the constituency to facilitate smooth holding of polls.
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