Ruling Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) has decided to award party ticket to Amjad Afridi for contesting the by-election from NA-249, Karachi, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Friday.

Amjad Afridi is the PTI Karachi District West’s president.

A few days back the PTI had formed a five-member parliamentary board for awarding the ticket for NA-249 Karachi by-election. The board had been formed by PTI Chairman Imran Khan to award the ticket for the seat got vacated after Faisal Vawda’s resignation.

Federal minister Ali Zaidi, PTI Karachi President Khurrum Sher Zaman and former opposition leader Firdous Shamim Naqvi were the members of the board.

Meanwhile, 55 candidates hailing from different parties had submitted their nomination papers to contest the NA-249 by-election. The most prominent among those who had submitted the nominations included Mustafa Kamal of the PSP and Miftah Ismail of the PML-N.

A total of 13 candidates submitted nomination forms from PTI, PML-N three, MQM-Pakistan 7, PPP 3, TLP 4, PSP 3 and one each candidate from ANP, MWM, PML-F had submitted nomination papers.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had slapped a ban on transfers and postings of the government officials in the constituency, while the announcement of development schemes was also prohibited.

The ECP had stated that the candidates can submit their nomination papers from March 13 to March 17, following which a final list of candidates will be displayed.

Scrutiny of the nomination papers will be held on March 25 while appeals against rejection or acceptance of papers could be filed on March 29 and a decision on these would be announced on April 6.

Candidates can withdraw their nomination papers until April 7 and the election symbols will be allotted on April 8. Polling for the by-election will be held on April 29.

Reporter Hassan Abbas