Voters began arriving at polling stations to cast their ballots as the by-election for the NA-249 constituency in Karachi began on Thursday.

The seat was left vacant after Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's (PTI) Faisal Vawda resigned and became a senator. PTI's Amjad Afridi, Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz's Miftah Ismail, Pakistan Peoples Party's Qadir Khan Mandokhail, Muttahida Qaumi Movement's Mohammad Mursaleen and Mustafa Kamal of Pak Sarzameen Party are vying for the seat.

The voting process, which began at 8:00 am, will continue till 5pm without any break. There are 339,591 voters in the constituency, out of which 201,656 are male and 137,935 are female voters.

276 polling stations comprising 796 polling booths have been established in the constituency. The Election Commission of Pakistan has directed the presiding officers to send pictures of Form-45 in the presence of polling agents of the contesting candidates to the returning officers.

The ECP has also asked the Karachi administration to appoint healthcare staff in order to effectively implement coronavirus SOPs during the polling process.The Sindh government has announced a public holiday today in order to facilitate voters.