NEW DELHI, July 16 (NNN-Bernama) — Pakistan’s Punjab province is all set to hold the crucial provincial assembly byelections on Sunday, with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) locked in a bitter contest.
Campaigning ended on Friday night for the 20 constituencies that will determine who controls Pakistan’s most populous province.
More than 52,000 police personnel are being deployed in 14 districts as part of election security arrangements, ARY News reported on Saturday.
Former prime minister and PTI chairman Imran Khan addressed huge election rallies in recent days as his party tries to regain power in Punjab it lost after a controversial assembly vote in April in which Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s son Hamza Shehbaz became the province’s chief minister.
The byelection is being held to fill the seats that fell vacant following the disqualification of PTI defectors who voted for Hamza.
At present, Hamza’s PML-N is short of a simple majority in the provincial legislature.
— NNN-BERNAMA
