ISLAMABAD: Low turnout and a few violent clashes marked the by-elections for around two dozen national and provincial assembly seats in Pakistan yesterday.
The vote lost much significance after legal challenges caused the postponement of balloting in one constituency where former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was to contest for a National Assembly slot. There are 341 candidates in the field for the national and provincial assembly seats, out of which 59 are contesting for the National Assembly constituencies.
While in a provincial breakdown, 171 candidates are vying for the 12 vacant seats of the Punjab Assembly, 68 are contesting for seven NWFP seats, 25 for three Balochistan seats and eight candidates for the single seat of the Sindh Assembly.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday put off the by-election in a ward of Lahore, the Punjab province’s capital, while hearing a federal government appeal against Sharif’s disqualification over his previous convictions.
Violent clashes broke out between rival political groups in the town of Jahanian, about 350 kilometers southwest of Lahore around midday, media reports said. More than two dozen people were injured when they were caught in the crossfire outside a polling station, the Aaj television news channel reported. However, the situation normalized after a heavy contingent of police reached the scene and arrested at least four of the gunmen.
