Voting underway in Pakistan by-election

Sharif also launched his daughter to be his unofficial political strategist and spokesperson while delaying the announcement of the name of the candidate who would contest the by-election.

It may be mentioned here that PTI could win just one by-election for national assembly seat after the 2013 general elections, and in which Jehangir Khan Tareen defeated PML-N’s Candidate.

Some voters complained that the process inside the polling stations was taking too long and that some of the polling stations were without electricity.

PTI’s candidate Yasmeen Rashid alleged some mismanagement during the poll and said she would approach the court against the election authorities.

Sharif’s daughter Maryam has spearheaded the PML-N campaign for her mother – who was the ruling party’s candidate despite receiving cancer treatment in London with Sharif at her side.

This Lahore constituency elected Nawaz Sharif thrice since 1990. The Sharif family has to face the corruption charges filed against them by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in the accountability court.

“We accept this court order against Nawaz Sharif because we don’t want political chaos”, said Zafar Ullah, a leader member of the ruling party.

The election was held peacefully and there were only minor incidents of a scuffle during the 9-hour polling on Sunday.

The petitions were filed by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) nominee for NA-120 Faisal Mir and Pakistan Awami Tehreek’s (PAT) Advocate Ishtiaq Ahmad Chaudhry.

Hafiz Saeed heads the Jammat-ud-Dawa (JuD) charity, having founded and formerly led the Lashkhar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant group that carried out the 2008 attacks on the Indian city of Mumbai that killed 166 people.

Saeed is subject to a United States bounty of $10m and has been named by both the USA and UN as a “terrorist”.

For the first time in Pakistan, Biometric Voter Verification Machines are being tested. “The PTI will not let the official by-election result be announced till it receives the clarification over the 29,000 unverified votes”, she said.

Asad Hashim is Al Jazeera’s digital correspondent in Pakistan.