What's different this time?

By-polls normally do not attract much media attention as both voter turnouts and stakes are low and they don't necessarily reflect or predict the outcome of a general election.

However, NA-120 is no ordinary by-election: it comes following the ouster of a prime minister that was elected by this very constituency after the judiciary decided against him in a case pursued relentlessly for more than a year by the PTI.

This election will decide how the SC verdict has affected those who have voted Sharif into power for years. Do they feel that their vote was "insulted" by the Panama verdict, as Sharif and his party have insisted? Or have they started to feel that those in power, even if elected, must be held accountable?

The result of this by-election is also sure to determine the future course of action for the Sharif family amidst the pressures that the family is currently facing from the courts.

Security and biometric verification

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is taking extra measures to ensure that the polls go as smoothly as possible.

The army will be assisting in the security arrangements after the ECP declared the whole constituency ‘sensitive’, but also because opposition parties demanded the army's presence.

As a security measure, the ECP has also directed the chief secretary of Punjab to install closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras at all polling stations in NA-120 before the by-election after receiving a request in this regard from the army, which has been asked to perform security duties during the by-poll.

The ECP also plans to test-run biometric verification machines at selected polling stations during the upcoming by-poll.