The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has won the by-election held on Sunday for the Sindh Assembly constituency of PS-94 in Karachi's Korangi neighbourhood with a landslide victory against the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI).

Unofficial, preliminary results received from 149 polling stations show MQM's Syed Hashim Raza bagged 21,537 votes to maintain his party's dominance in the constituency.

PTI's Muhammad Ashraf Jabbar trailed behind with 8,970 votes, and the MQM-Haqiqi and Pak Sarzameen Party candidates managed to obtain 5,806 and 1,416 votes, respectively.

Voting had commenced at 8am amid tight security, and continued uninterrupted till 5pm without any major disturbance reported during the day. Voters who were present inside polling stations at 5pm were allowed to cast their votes even after the polling time ended.

The counting of votes lasted several hours, but even as results were still pouring in, MQM supporters were seen celebrating their party's anticipated victory with music and dance.

The PS-94 Korangi Karachi-III seat had fallen vacant after the death of MQM MPA Muhammad Wajahat in November last year.

A total of 28 aspirants had come in the field to contest the by-election, but unofficial results that poured in after the voting ended showed the main fight was between the MQM and PTI candidates, with Raza leading the race at most polling stations.

Three days before the Korangi by-poll, unidentified suspects had stolen around 1,800 computerised national identity cards (CNICs) from an office of the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) in Landhi. The area where the Nadra office is located falls in PS-94 constituency.

As contesting parties expressed concern over the incident, the Pakistan Rangers Sindh a day later claimed to have arrested a suspect who along with his accomplices allegedly stole the CNICs from the Nadra office. At least 803 stolen identity cards were recovered from the suspect.