KARACHI, July 6: With the announcement of July 20 as the date for polling on the two controversial AJK Legislative Assembly constituencies, candidates in Karachi, where there are a total of 95 polling stations, have resumed their election campaigns.

The election was deferred on the two constituencies — LA-30 and LA-36 — on June 24 by the AJK Election Commission on June 26, two days before polling day, after receiving a report from the DIG (headquarters) Karachi, who had contended that the law and order situation in the city was not favourable for the election.

According to the AJK EC, polling on the seats for Kashmiri refugees would be held on July 20 from 8am to 5pm.

LA-30, which has 68,000 voters, would have 199 polling stations spread over 36 districts of Sindh, Balochistan, and five divisions of Punjab. In Karachi there would be 70 polling stations for some 38,000 voters. In LA-36, there would be 34 polling stations — 25 in Karachi, eight in the interior of Sindh and one in Quetta.

In LA-36, there are 6,200 voters, including over 4,000 in Karachi, while the rest are in Quetta and the interior of Sindh.

In LA-30, there are 12 candidates in the run, including Tahir Khokhar of the MQM, Sardar Abdul Rashid of the All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference and Abdul Rashid Mirza of the PML-N. In LA-36, there are 11 candidates in the field, including Salim Butt of the MQM, Iqbal Kashmiri of the PPP and Said Hamid Abbasi of the AJKMC.