TOBA TEK SINGH: An armed clash between the supporters of the PML-N and the PTI candidates was averted in Faisalabad’s Dastagirpura area falling in NA-108 on Friday night.

The stage is set for the contest in NA-108 where the by-election is being held on Sunday.

Eyewitnesses said activists of both the parties came to blows over the dispute of establishing their election office at a place and they brandished weapons. A police team reached there and mediated between the two groups and decided that none of them would set up an office at the particular place.

Twelve candidates are in the run but the main contest is between Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan and PML-N candidate Abid Sher Ali, a former minister of state. In the 2018 general election, PTI’s former federal minister of state for information and broadcasting Farrukh Habib, defeated Abid Sher by a margin of 1,275 votes.

An ECP official said 354 polling stations had been established for 505,186 voters -- 271,039 men and 234,147 women. He said 281 polling stations had been declared sensitive and security arrangements put in place.

The official said anti-dengue spray had been made by teams of health department in the buildings where polling stations have been set up.

Faisalabad CPO Omer Saeed Malik said more than 6,000 policemen would perform duty in and around the polling stations while soldiers of army and rangers would also be available for any emergency situation.

A Rescue 1122 press release said 20 posts had been established in the constituency where ambulances, fire-fighting vehicles and motorcycles would be available to deal with any emergency.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2022