The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) was victorious on two Karachi seats in the second round of by-polls on Sunday, but lost a provincial assembly seat to the Awami National Party in Peshawar, according to unofficial results shared by Radio Pakistan.

NA-247 and PS-111 in Karachi fell vacant after the PTI candidates who were elected on them in the July 25 polls tendered their resignations. Arif Alvi, who was elected on the NA seat, resigned after he was elected President of Pakistan, while Imran Ismail who won the provincial assembly seat, resigned after being appointed Governor of Sindh.

PK-71 in Peshawar was vacated by Shah Farman who was named Governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

PTI's Aftab Siddiqui beat MQM-P's Sadiq Iftikhar on NA-247. He secured 32,464 votes to Iftikhar's 14,114 votes.

PTI's Shahzad Qureshi was elected to Sindh Assembly seat PS-111 from Karachi with 11,658 votes. He was running against 14 other candidates, including PPP's Fayaz Pirzada and MQM-P's Jahanzaib Mughal.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly seat PK-71 in Peshawar was won by ANP's Salahuddin, who beat PTI's Zulfiqar Khan by securing 11,224 votes to his 9,755. Zulfiqar is KP Governor Shah Farman's brother.

Polling kicked off on Sunday at 8am and continued until 5pm. The results were tabulated through the ECP's Result Transmission System (RTS).

President Arif Alvi casts vote

President Arif Alvi cast his vote in Karachi's NA-247 Constituency. The president urged the nation to cast their vote in the by-polls. "Vote for which ever party you want to vote for but it is your duty to come out and cast your vote," he said.

He said he cast his vote for his favourite candidate but refused to name the person.

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

The time period of campaigning for the by-polls had ended at 12 midnight on Friday. Candidates were barred from holding rallies, corner meetings or conducting door-to-door campaign after the deadline.

NA-247

According to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), 240 polling stations were set up in NA-247, which has a total of 546,451 registered voters.

More than 900 members of the polling staff performed duties during the by-poll in the constituency, which comprises areas of Defence, Clifton, Old City, Kharadar, Ranchhore Line etc.

Twelve candidates are in the run for the seat. Besides PTI’s billionaire foreign-qualified candidate Aftab Hussain Siddiqui, prominent contenders are Sadiq Iftikhar of the MQM-P, famous TV artist Qaiser Khan Nizamani of PPP, Arshad Vohra of the Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP), Ali Nawab of the Pakistan Sunni Tehreek and seven independent candidates.

The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) and PML-N are not contesting the by-election.

In the July 25 general elections, Arif Alvi had bagged over 91,000 votes — over 65,000 votes more than the runner-up — against the candidates of TLP, MQM-P and MMA who received 24,680, 24,146 and 22,780 votes, respectively. MQM-P’s heavyweight candidate Dr Farooq Sattar had come third after TLP’s Zaman Ali Jafery.

PS-111

Eighty polling stations were established in the Sindh Assembly constituency of PS-111. The constituency has 178,965 registered voters.

According to ECP, 80 presiding officers and 320 assistant presiding officers were to perform duties during the polling.

Fifteen candidates filed their nomination papers for the by-election including PTI’s Shehzad Qureshi, PPP’s Fayaz Pirzada and MQM-P’s Jahanzaib Mughal.

PK-71

Five candidates were in the running for by-polls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly constituency PK-71, Peshawar-VI, for which polling was held at 86 polling stations.

The constituency has a total of 133,461 registered voters including 79,846 men and 53,615 women.

A total of 307 polling booths, including 118 for men and 119 for women voters, were set up in the provincial assembly constituency.

The main contest is expected between PTI candidate Zulfiqar Khan and ANP’s Salahuddin.

Three independent candidates — Dildar Khan, Abdul Kareem Khan and Fazle Haq Kohe Damani — also tried their luck in the polls.

In the general elections, Shah Farman had contested on two seats, PK-71 and PK-74. He had lost on PK-74, but won PK-71. He had received 17,309 votes whereas the runner-up, Siffatullah of PML-N, had received 9,202 votes.

PTI candidate Zulfiqar Khan is the brother of Governor Farman.

The local police had declared 51 of the 86 polling stations highly sensitive because these are situated close to the former tribal areas.

The ECP had said that personnel of army and civil armed forces would be deployed inside and outside all the polling stations from Oct 19 till Oct 22.

Earlier today, some violations of the ECP's code of conduct were reported as anti-PTI announcements were made from mosques.

Subsequently, the commission took notice of the announcements and directed Additional Assistant Commissioner Shahbaz to submit a detailed report in this regard. The official visited the relevant mosques and warned the prayer leaders against such conduct.

He said that the announcements were a violation of the code of conduct and that action would be taken against those involved.

According to the ECP spokesperson, when an ECP team visited him, the prayer leader of the mosque said that only one announcement made from the mosque urged people to go out and vote.

Facilitation centre set up

The ECP set up a facilitation centre to assist voters regarding the by-elections in the three constituencies.

The facilitation centre was functional between 8am and 6pm. Residents will be able to seek details of results of by-polls in their constituencies after 6pm.