Karachi

Karachi's NA-245 constituency witnessed silence in polling booths as the members of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) successfully boycotted the elections.

The poll was held on Aug 21, after the seat fell vacant due to the demise of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader Dr Aamir Liaquat Hussain.

Only 11.8 per cent of voters turned for voting. The total number of registered voters in the constituency are 515,003 but only 60,760 votes were cast due to a boycott on the appeal of the founder and leader of MQM, Altaf Hussain.

Hussain in his video message from London appealed to the people of the constituency to boycott these by-elections and told the people that all kinds of restrictions have been imposed on the political, organizational and welfare activities of the MQM.

The MQM leader's letters, handbills and pamphlets were also distributed by party workers in the constituency asking people to boycott the by-election.

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Generally, at the time of polling, there are queues of voters at the polling stations and there is a crowd at the polling camps, but on the appeal of Hussain people boycotted the poll, and no rush was seen at the polling station, while the polling camps set up by the political parties in the area were remained empty.