By Xinhua,
Islamabad : Pakistan’s parliament by-elections started on Thursday amid tight security in polling stations.
Pakistan has stepped up security measures to guarantee a smooth and uninterrupted polling, in which the voters will decide on vacancies of the National Assembly, lower parliament, and provincial parliament seats.
Around 4,300 police officials are guarding 562 polling stations in the garrison city of Rawalpindi adjacent to capital Islamabad, police sources said.
However, the polling for constituency NA-123 in eastern city of Lahore, where former prime minister Nawaz Sharif stands, were postponed because the hearing on Sharif’s disqualification case would be held at the end of the month.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Sharif had submitted his nomination paper to contest the by-elections, and his paper was previously approved by the election committee.
However, a full bench of the Lahore High Court on Monday disqualified Sharif from contesting the by-elections. The PML-N said the verdict was politically-motivated and viewed it as a conspiracy.
The bench of Pakistan Supreme Court, after receiving the appeal against the disqualification from the federal government, made the decision to stay the by-election on Sharif’s constituency before it holds hearing on the case on June 30.
The Pakistani government said the Lahore High Court was not competent to hear the disqualification case.
Sharif has refused to appear in person before the supreme court because he would not accept those judges who took oath of office after President Pervez Musharraf declared an emergency rule last November.
Sharif was barred from Feb. 18 general elections for the convictions related to the coup in 1999, in which then army chief Musharraf seized power.