Voting has ended in the by-election for Bahawalpur’s NA-168 National Assembly seat, with the provincial election authorities reporting that polling passed off largely peacefully across the constituency on Sunday.
Polls opened at 8am and closed at 5pm. According to Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) spokesperson Huda Gohar, voters who were already inside polling station boundaries at 5pm were allowed to cast their ballots after closing time. Official results are awaited.
A close two-way contest
The race was expected to be tight between the ruling PML-N’s Malik Munir Iqbal Channar and independent candidate Wali Dad Cheema.
The seat became vacant after the death in August of Malik Muhammad Iqbal Channar, the constituency’s member of the National Assembly. His son, Malik Munir Iqbal Channar, was nominated by the PML-N to hold the seat for the party. Cheema is the son of Tariq Bashir Cheema, a former federal minister from the PML-Q.
The constituency in numbers
Figures from the provincial election commissioner’s office show the scale of the exercise:
| Category | Figure |
|---|---|
| Registered voters | 483,143 |
| Men | 248,259 |
| Women | 234,614 |
| Polling stations | 292 |
| Presiding officers | 307 |
| Polling and assistant presiding officers | 941 |
One disruption, quickly resolved
The provincial election commissioner’s office said only “routine complaints” were received during the day. Voting was briefly interrupted at one polling station in Akhtarabad after a brawl broke out among voters, following alleged harassment of election staff by political workers.
The commissioner’s control room acted immediately, and the district returning officer and returning officer brought the situation under control with the help of police. “The issue has since been resolved and polling is continuing as usual,” the commission said at the time.
Security arrangements
Security was a priority ahead of polling day. On Saturday, the Punjab Home Department asked the federal interior ministry to deploy troops of the army and Punjab Rangers in the constituency to ensure the by-election was conducted smoothly and safely.
The campaign had not been free of trouble. On September 12, three people were injured in an armed clash at Baqirpur during an election rally for Cheema, when supporters of rival candidates exchanged fire, according to Rescue 1122.
The wider political picture
The by-election comes at a busy moment for Punjab politics. The province is preparing for the PTI’s planned march on Islamabad on October 4, and opposition members of the Punjab Assembly have challenged the Section 144 restrictions on public gatherings. For the PML-N, which governs both Punjab and the centre, holding a seat in south Punjab would be a sign that its support remains solid in the region, while a win for an independent would be read as a warning.
The provincial government has also been pushing development projects across the province, from the expansion of Safe City surveillance to 98 tehsils to a new uniform sanitation system under Suthra Punjab, and results in south Punjab are often seen as a test of whether such work is being felt on the ground.
Why it matters
A peaceful by-election with a clear result strengthens public confidence in the electoral process, especially after a campaign marred by violence. The outcome in NA-168 will be closely watched as a measure of the PML-N’s standing in south Punjab, and as an early test of the political mood ahead of a tense few weeks in the province. The Indus Compass will report the result once the official count is announced.
This article draws on reporting published by Dawn.
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