KARACHI: The polling process in Karachi’s NA-236 constituency could not be started as Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) blamed the authorities for deliberately creating hurdles.

According to details, the polling started around 3pm — just 2 hours before the 5pm deadline — at Askari 4 polling station of PS-100 and NA-236 from where PTI’s Alamgir Khan is contesting.

A large number of voters were waiting since morning to cast their ballot due to the absence of polling staff, they couldn’t exercise their right. There are 5,000 voters registered in Askari 4.

There were reports of delays in the start of voting which were rejected by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Sindh.

“The polling process at the polling station in NA-236’s Abul Hasan Isfahani Road going on without any delay or interruption,” a spokesperson for the Sindh ECP said in a statement.

The spokesperson referred to the media that the polling process had been delayed at the polling station.

The Sindh ECP spokesperson cited a returning officer as saying that the polling process in the constituency is underway peacefully.

The polling station No 176 of the constituency was not established at Shaheen School due to which voters faced trouble in casting votes.

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) candidate Muzammil Qureshi had demanded the ECP to take notice of the situation in his constituency.

Likewise, voters at Hashmat Memorial School complained that voters’ list was not available at polling station number 153/111.

A presiding officer said those voters who have code can cast their ballots and said that he cannot issue ballot papers without record.

Likewise, voters also complained that the presiding officer was also not present at polling station established at Al-Noor Public School in NA-236.

MQM-Pakistan’s Hasan Sabir, PPP’s Qureshi and Muhammad Osama Razi Khan of Jamat-e-Islami (JI) among other candidates are vying for the NA-236 seat.

According to the data of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), 5,336 polling stations have been established in seven districts of Karachi. From the point of view of security, 3,038 of them are highly sensitive, 2,170 sensitive and 128 normal.

A total of 575 candidates are in the run for the 22 NA seats, and 1,406 for the 47 PA seats.

The ECP established nine dispatch centres in the city for the provision of the electoral materials. Police provided security for their transportation to the polling stations.