Despite the heavy presence of men in khaki, police vehicles and sniffer dogs not many ventured out of their homes to cast ballots. As the unofficial statistics started rolling in, it seemed that the final figure for the voter turnout at the 43 polling stations would be somewhere around 20 per cent.

The low turnout comes despite Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) shows of strength in protests held across the city over seven consecutive days. While talking to The Express Tribune, Mohammad Arif, a PTI polling agent, said, “After the murder of the party’s provincial vice president [Zahra Shahid Hussain] last night, fear has gripped the area and people are scared to go out to vote.” Even before the shooting, some had predicted a low turnout as the major contenders, including candidates from Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), had boycotted the re-polling.

By the time the clock struck five – the time polling was to end – only 62 votes had been cast at polling booths set up inside Aisha Bawany Secondary School. The situation was not very different at the booths set up in Aisha Bawany Government College, located next to the school. Of the 1,299 voters registered there, about 73 showed up to give the thumb of approval any candidate.

Surprisingly, among those who had turned up to vote were a few who had decided to stay away from polling stations on May 11. “I didn’t bother to cast vote because of the hooliganism exhibited by activists of [a political party],” said Ali Zain, a young voter who emerged with an inked thumb from a polling station set-up in the midst of Delhi Colony’s bustling market.

The same dismal turnout was witnessed at four polling stations in Hijrat Colony, one polling station each at the Tekri Colony and Shireen Jinnah Colony. While the turnout remained surprisingly low in some areas, voters residing in Defence Housing Authority still braved the heat to vote.

Confusions arise

Re-polling at few of polling stations turned controversial as several thousand voters failed to cast vote because of missing lists of blocks. But the presiding officers kept insisting that the missing blocks were already counted on May 11 polls.

The issues were reported at Ismail Allahwala Secondary School in Delhi Colony, Defence Model School located in Phase IV and DHA Girls’ College in Phase VIII. The staff at three polling stations had turned down voters despite their claims that they had yet to be even close to a ballot paper.

SM Talha who was serving as the presiding officer at Ismail Allahwala School told The Express Tribune that a total of four polling stations, 111 to 114, were established at the school on May 11. According to the re-polling notification, however, only those voters registered at polling stations number 113 and 114 were allowed to vote.

Muhammad Huzaifa, who could not find his name on the list said, “This appears to be a drama. It is unjustified and unreasonable to allow re-polling at two polling booths while leaving out the other two at the same venue.” He added that rigging had taken place at some of the venue.

‘May 11 polls were not transparent’

Unlike their counterparts in Defence and Clifton, polling stations in the old city areas were not thronged by enthusiastic voters. According to Syed Atta Ullah Shah Bukhari, a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf  polling agent in Aram Bagh, only ten people had turned up to vote in the first few hours though he was confident that others would come in the second half. Bukhari said that he has thrown caution to the wind by coming out to perform his duty in this area, which is ethnically divided and dominated by a party. “My mother stopped me from going in the morning but I have to play my part for a better Pakistan.”

Saeedur Rehman, an assistant presiding officer, said that clearly it looks like an election now unlike in the past where people were bullied to vote for someone. He said that due to yesterday’s violence the turnout is low but he expected it to pick up. Rehman said that a total of 122 people have been brought in from Balochistan for polls duty. “We should have been appointed to conduct polls on May 11 as we are not from the city and hence don’t have any political affiliations. Today’s elections are transparent but the same could not be said for May 11. “

Rukhsana, another assistant presiding officer, said that her team had been at the polling station since morning but people were not turning up, adding that on May 11 there were long lines though many couldn’t vote due to rigging and interference of political activists.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 20^th, 2013.

According to airport officials, the ditch was detected when an Airblue flight was preparing for take-off. The runway was then closed and repair work was initiated, an official said.

“Since the airport is being used by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and Pakistan Air Force (PAF) jointly, a meeting of the base commander and airport authorities is under way,” the official said.

The airport closure disrupted the schedule of five flights, including four international flights.

CAA spokesperson Abid Qaimkhani told The Express Tribune that all inbound and outbound air traffic was temporarily suspended due to the ditch.

“Runway maintenance work is under way but as for now no specific time for resuming flight operations can be stated,” said Qaimkhani.

The fault disrupted operations of at least two flights of Pakistan International Airlines were delayed, said PIA spokesperson Muhammad Mashhood Tajwar. PIA flight PK-755 bound for Riyadh from Lahore via Peshawar at 6:50pm was delayed. Another Peshawar-bound flight from Karachi, PK-350, was also delayed.

Shaheen Air International’s Muscat-bound flight from Peshawar, NL-771, was also cancelled.

Tajwar, however, clarified that the national flag carrier was waiting for clearance and information provided by CAA and airport authorities.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 19^th, 2013.

KARACHI: On the sixth consecutive day of protests against ‘hijacking’ of elections in Karachi, thousands of people showed up at the Mazar-e-Quaid with demands that the Election Commission of Pakistan to hold re-election across the city.

Activists and supporters of a number of political parties, including Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Jamiat-e-Ulema-Islam-Fazlur Rehman (JUI-F), Jamiat-e-Ulema-Islam-Samiul Haq (JUI-S), Jamiat-e-Ulema-Pakistan (JUP), started arriving at the venue holding their party flags and sat on the floor mats laid on the road adjacent to the Quaid’s mausoleum.

Leaders addressing the participants announced the boycott of re-election on 43 polling stations of the NA-250 constituency, calling it a ‘lollipop’ and an attempt by the Election Commission of Pakistan to ‘whitewash the extensive rigging across the city’.

“In result of sham elections, a political mafia was allowed to extend its control over the city of lights. Every responsibility for the deteriorating law and order situation will only be on the Chief Election Commissioner Fakhruddin G Ebrahim and the Army chief Ashfaq Parvez Kayani,” said JI leader Nasrullah Khan Shajee.

Shajee said that the protests will continue until their demands were met and protestors on Saturday will throng the provincial election commission office. He informed the participants that the JI had filed a petition in the Supreme Court of Pakistan against the bogus elections in Karachi and Hyderabad.

For the candidates of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) who had contested the elections, the JUI-F leader Maulana Umer Sadiq said that all those were not ‘elected’ by citizens of Karachi but represent the ‘thappa mafia’.

Maulana Sadiq said that only re-election across Karachi and respect to the people’s mandate could save the city from ‘future tumult’.

JUP leader Mustaqim Noorani asked the chief election commissioner to disclose the reasons behind not holding the re-polls when hundreds of evidences regarding extensive rigging and the commission’s failure had surfaced.

“People will be justified in believing that the election commission was part of the international agenda of accommodating the stooges,” he said. “I also want to make it clear to Nawaz Sharif that if Karachi’s mandate issue is not resolved, the government will not be able to govern in the centre with peace.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 18^th, 2013.

In the letter written to the ECP late night on Wednesday, the provincial government allegedly stated that it could not facilitate the commission to hold the election given the worsening state of law and order and tense situation in the constituency.

However, Sharfuddin Memon, the special assistant to the Sindh chief minister on home affairs, said the home department had not written the letter to the ECP, adding that it was instead “managed” by some people.

When asked to elaborate, Memon said that the letter “was managed by those who claim to have a heavy mandate in Karachi”.

He went on to accuse the same party of rigging and said that those who were arrested from polling stations by the Rangers were workers of that party.

Following allegations of widespread rigging and delays during elections in NA-250 on May 11, the ECP announced re-polling for 43 stations of the constituency.

“We want to hold re-elections on all 43 polling stations on the scheduled date,” Memon said.

The special assistant to the CM said the government would provide security and assure that rigging does not take place in the re-polling at NA-250 given that “there is no interference from the governor house”.

Meanwhile, press secretary to the Sindh chief minister, Tariq Imam, told The Express Tribune that he was unaware of any letter written to the ECP. “I have neither seen the letter nor given any briefing on it.”

Reactions

Even though the caretaker government denied writing the letter to ECP, various political parties earlier in the day severely criticised the move.

“The caretaker government’s letter, expressing its inability to hold the re-polls, might be an indication for the Chief Election Commissioner to call on the army for this purpose,” said Jamaat-e-Islami Sindh chief Dr Merajul Siddiqui. “Our protest drive that has reached its fifth day is not for the sake of re-polling at one or two constituencies. The whole of Karachi was held hostage by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and evidence of extensive rigging are available for each and every constituency.”

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf candidate for NA-256 Zubair Khan said that if the Sindh government is not able to conduct elections on NA-250, how did they conduct elections in the whole city. “It means that the elections which were conducted in the city were bogus. Only one party was handed over the city for rigging and that party did what it wanted,” he said.

However, MQM coordination committee member Wasim Aftab dismissed the accusations, saying political and religious parties that suffered a crushing defeat in the polls were accusing the MQM of rigging under a calculated move.

Aftab told The Express Tribune that the MQM had exercised its democratic right by staging a peaceful sit-in and would continue till the party’s demand of conducting elections on all polling stations of NA-250 was accepted.

The party’s coordination committee, however, called off the protest sit-in past midnight on Thursday, following orders received from MQM chief Altaf Hussain.

Meanwhile, Hussain appealed to the people of the country, specially the people of Sind to observe “A day of Thanks” today (Friday) to celebrate the historical victory of Haq Parast candidates in the general elections. In the statement, he also said the MQM was not allowed to freely participate in elections by use of force, and hundreds of its workers were targeted in blasts.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 17^th, 2013.

KARACHI / SUKKUR: Braving the dharnas, rallies, black days and a province-wide strike called by the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional, thousands of students across Sindh sat for their intermediate exams on Thursday amid the elections’ hangover that refuses to go away.

Karachi will see more than 160,000 science, commerce, home economics and medical technology students file into 165 examination centres in the first phase of the exams, to continue till June 6, held under the Board of Intermediate Education Karachi (BIEK). Two papers, English and Urdu, were held in two shifts on the first day.

At a pre-exam meeting held at the commissioner officer, the BIEK had declared 21 centres as sensitive and 12 as highly sensitive owing to the precarious law and order situation in the city. The centres fell in areas that included Lyari, Landhi, Orangi Town and Sultanabad. During the meeting, Rangers and police officials had assured the board officials of deploying their troops to prevent any untoward situation. It was, however, observed that inadequate security measures were in place outside most of them.

Besides the security, other arrangements appeared to be relatively better than the preceding year when severe load-shedding made students miserable at around 40 per cent of the centres.

Imran Khan Chishti, the BIEK controller examinations, said that district-level vigilance teams and a super vigilance team was formed by the board to check all arrangements, including electricity supply, drinking water provision, measures against use of unfair means and presence of security officials.

Earlier, BIEK chairperson Anwar Ahmed Zai visited various examination centres along with a team of journalists. Despite official orders that all photocopy shops in and around examination centres be closed during exam hours, the journalists came across a functioning machine inside the premises of Sir Syed Government Girls College in Nazimabad.

Scant security arrangements were seen outside the 33 sensitive centres in the city

The next stop was Jinnah Government College for Boys, situated right next to the BIEK office. “They should at least arrange proper lights for us,” complained Imran Mohsin, one of the 700 candidates sitting in a dark hall of the college. The BIEK officials immediately sent for more lights to be arranged.

Reports of cheating and use of unfair means continued to pour in from different centres throughout the day.

The second phase of the exams will be held in June for which over 79,000 privately enrolled arts students will take the exam.

Students in Sukkur get ‘assistance’

The annual Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSC) Part I and II exams started on Thursday in Sukkur division amid widespread reports of cheating from many centres. The exams were held under the auspices of Sukkur Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, in Sukkur, Ghotki, Khairpur and Naushero Feroze districts.

The controller examination, Mehmoodul Hassan Khokhar, said that around 34,000 HSC-II students sat for the Islamic Education part II held on Thursday while 33,000 HSC-I students are registered with the board. He said that the Sukkur board has constituted 17 teams to pay surprise visits to examination centres to check cheating. Khokhar said that in total 101 examination centres have been set up in the four districts under his watch.

The district administration, meanwhile, imposed section 144 outside centres which disallows gathering of more than five people. The ban, however, was being openly defied as a sizable crowd was seen outside the examination halls providing logistical support to their respective candidates.

Besides imposing section 144, the administration also issued directives to close down all photostat shops in the vicinity of examination centres to put a stop to the copy culture. It was, however, observed that most shopkeepers were operating out of their homes and other shops to ‘facilitate’ their customers.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 17^th, 2013.

On Tuesday – the fifth consecutive day of protests – over a 1,000 people had come to Sharae Faisal, where Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) had organised a rally. The protesters may have started off with the usual chants, ‘gundagardi nahi chaley gi’ [we will not accept hooliganism] and ‘dhandli nahi chaley gi’ [we won’t take rigging], but it soon became apparent that they had invested their creative juices in coming up with fresher ways to protest.

A makeshift stage had been set up where protesters had a chance to present songs, speeches and poems which they had meticul. One rather amusing song about the Chief Election Commissioner went something like this: ‘Jaago, jaago Fakhru bhai, qaum ne tum pe kiya bharosa, qaum ki kesi shaamat ayi’ [Wake up Fakhru bhai. The nation trusted you and it met a catastrophe].

Another unique feature was a 200-metre-long flag of Pakistan which protesters held up as they shouted slogans against the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) mismanagement on May 11, polling day.

While addressing the protesters, JI’s candidate for NA-251 and Indus Pharma CEO, Zahid Saeed, said, “The ECP should realise that the protests will continue until it accepts our demands for fresh elections in all of Karachi’s constituencies.” He added that political parties had been organising protests separately but would form an alliance to push for their demands. “If the ECP asks for evidence, we will supply it. But it should ask its own staff about who took the polling staff hostage and seized ballot boxes.”

The head of the Human Rights Network, Intikhab Alam, was also present at the protest. He said that the organisation had been collecting data on rigging. “Some ballot boxes were not even sealed – the basic criterion for free and fair elections had not even been fulfilled.”

Hasan Amar, a protester, felt that the ECP’s decision to order fresh polls in some polling stations of NA-250 was not enough to counter the damage of “widespread” rigging across the city.

PTI’s keeps protests going

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) also organised another protest outside Millennium Mall on Rashid Minhas Road. The participants shouted slogans against the CEC and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM). With PTI’s flags wrapped around their foreheads and placards in their hands, they said that Karachi is part of Pakistan and they will not tolerate claims made by any party that the city is its property.

While talking to The Express Tribune, Rahila Khan, the joint secretary for PTI’s Sindh division,  said the party has made a clear cut demand to the ECP – fresh elections in the city under the watchful eye of the army. “We are here to free our city from terrorists, target killers and extortionists. If the re-elections are not conducted, we’re very scared that there might be bloodshed in the city.” She said that their party workers and supporters are against the gun-culture. “Our polling agents and voters were forced out of the polling station by MQM thugs who then filled the boxes with bogus votes,” said Khan.

Farrah Malik, a PTI supporter who came from North Nazimabad, “We want justice. The CEC should tell us why the Rangers, police and army did nothing when hooligans from MQM were openly rigging the elections.”

PTI’s candidate for PS-118, Arsalan Taj Ghumman, said the party is organising protests across the city because rigging took place everywhere. “We want to remove the misperceptions that rigging took place only in NA-250. I myself was attacked and beaten by MQM activists at a polling station in my constituency.” He said that the party is submitting a petition in the apex court and will provide evidence of rigging in the court.

A black day against rigging has been announced and a protest will be organised outide Quaid-e-Azam’s mausoleum.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 17^th, 2013.

KARACHI: Several political parties, including the Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam and Majlis Wahdatul Muslimeen, announced on Wednesday that they will observe a Black Friday across Sindh on May 17  in protest of the ‘hijacked’ elections which were held on May 11.  A mass rally will be organised at the Mazar-e-Quaid on Friday to mark the protest.

This was announced by the JI’s Karachi general secretary, Naseem Siddique, at the party’s sit-in protest on main University Road, next to the Expo Centre.

On the fourth day of the protest demanding re-elections in the city, hundreds of activists and supporters thronged the venue. This time, however, the supporters were better equipped as participants brought mats to sit on and eatables to keep themselves energetic. Meanwhile, street-hawkers and vendors of the area seemed to be enjoying the large influx of people as their businesses flourished with people buying large quantities of goods.

The rally of hundreds of JI supporters started at 6.30pm, with people chanting slogans against rigging in the elections and against the Election Commission of Pakistan.

Hardly 200 metres away, hundreds of PTI supporters held a sit-in with the same demands. The charged up crowd, consisting people of all ages and backgrounds, shouted slogans against the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and ECP, demanding re-elections across the city, Party’s anthems played in the background, raising the crowd’s spirits even higher.

PTI’s supporter, Syed Akbar Ali, told The Express Tribune that “My only concern is where my vote went. Until the ECP gives us a reasonable response, these sit-ins will continue.” Such was the general consensus among all the participants of the rally. “If the ECP says there were no anomalies, they should verify the thumb impressions on the ballot papers with the help of NADRA,” said his wife, Hina.

A makeshift stage had been set up which staged an LCD screen. Videos of different rigging incidents were displayed on the screen which recieved boos from the crowd. Referring to the vidoes of alleged rigging, PTI leader Naz Baloch asked the crowd that if the overseas Pakistanis could see what was going on in the videos, why couldn’t the ECP?

“What happened in Karachi on the day of election was disgusting to say the least. We will go wherever the party leadership calls us. The presiding officer at Mehran School polling station in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, was busy with his biryani, pan and cigarettes as he told me my vote had already been cast” said a protester, Tahira Iqbal.

The rally continued until late into the night. The JI leadership announced that the sit-in will continue at Nursery, Shahra-e-Faisal from 6.30pm.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 16^th, 2013.

Soon after party leaders addressed the media at the press club, they led their supporters to march up to the Supreme Court Karachi registry. They found their way blocked by containers placed right across the National Academy of Performing Arts building. The leaders announced that they will sit-in at the same spot and stayed there till late in the evening. They also held Maghrib prayers on the road and were later joined by several hundred more people.

The home department had imposed Section-144 banning public gatherings, but the protesters defied the ban and stayed at the site. Several JI supporters from PECHS joined the protesters on Sharae Faisal. Earlier, JI leaders held a press conference in which they demanded fresh elections across Karachi. They called the elections a complete failure of the election commission.

“The JI will approach the Supreme Court to bring back people’s confidence so that they would know how and why the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) was allowed to hijack the people’s mandate,” claimed JI Karachi chief Muhammad Hussain Mehanti, addressing a crowded press conference along with the party leadership.

“The voters want to know how a candidate could possibly secure 170,000 votes within 10 hours,” he said. “They also want to know about the election commission’s impartiality in declaring the results when polling agents were thrown out of the polling stations on gunpoint.”

He reminded everyone that several political parties had demanded army deployment inside the polling stations but the election commission paid no heed. “The election commission should now have some shame and it should stop announcing the Karachi-related results when the Chief Election Commissioner Fakhruddin G Ebrahim has openly admitted his failure to hold free and fair elections in the city.”

He said that re-election in Karachi was not only JI’s demand but the voice of every stakeholder in Karachi.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 14^th, 2013.

“Today, we have no political affiliations. We are here for our rights. We are here for Pakistan!” a student, Gilani, told The Express Tribune. Thousands of people gathered at Teen Talwar to condemn the events that unfolded on May 11 in the city.

What seemed to be a small gathering of upset youngsters soon turned into a grand rally, which was joined by the hundreds of activists and supporters from Jamaat-e-Islami, Majlis-e-Wahdat Muslimeen, the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz and Pakistan Peoples Party candidate for PS-109 Saniya Naz Baloch. Along with the PPP candidate, buses loaded with people from Lyari also joined the protesters. The crowd shouted slogans of ‘Ghunda gardi nahi chale gi’ [We won’t tolerate hooliganism]. A majority of them held the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) responsible.

An aerial view of the protest at Teen Talwar. PHOTO COURTESY NADIR TOOSY

As the night progressed, the protesting crowd at Teen Talwar got larger in number, as more and more families joined the youth. Complaints had earlier been lodged to the election commission by some voters and political parties, alleging that certain polling stations were not given ballot boxes, ink, or, in some instances, sufficient security.

“We weren’t allowed to vote!” complained first-time voter, Rabia Arshad. KU student Ahsan Farooq recalled his voting experience at Defence College for Women where polling did not start until 3pm. “We knew then that someone was trying to deny us our right to have our say.”

After all the hype the ECP created about free and fair elections, Adil Basit, a 61-year-old resident of Defence, complained that May 11 was a huge disappointment. “There must be re-elections in all of Karachi and the army must be given charge of all polling stations.”

His demands were echoed by the rest of the crowd. “This is going to be our Tahrir Square,” shouted another young protester Anas Ahsun Mallick.

Rubina Sattar, 63, who was there with her family, also felt disappointed with the ECP. “We have been snatched of our rights once again,” she said.

Independent candidate demands re-election

An independent candidate for NA-250, Jibran Nasir, cheered the people on as they shouted slogans against the MQM. “I have been a witness to rigging in my own constituency. Most polling stations I visited did not even have stamps until very late. Voting at a polling station in Defence Phase Four was even cancelled. And the ECP wants to call this a free and fair election?”

Thousands of Karachi residents gathered at Teen Talwar to protest the rigging during the elections on Saturday. PHOTO: AYESHA MIR/EXPRESS

Meanwhile, Nasir also accused his rival contestant, Dr Arif Alvi, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Karachi president, of violating the ECP code of conduct by transporting ballot boxes to various polling stations, even though candidates were not allowed to do so. He demanded a re-election across the whole city.

Dr Alvi goes to SC

As he joined the protesters at Teen Talwar, Dr Alvi announced that the party will file a petition against the rigging in the Supreme Court after consulting their lawyers. He said he will go to court on the basis of a statement made by the ECP, accepting that it failed to hold free and fair elections in Karachi. He also demanded a re-election in the city.

Protest today?

There were unconfirmed reports of the protest ending at around 10:30pm and another one scheduled on Sharae Faisal today [Monday] at 7pm.

View a slideshow of the protest here.

ROs were threatened: ECP

The presiding officers and polling staff in NA-250 were directed to arrive at their respective polling stations along with the election material one night before the elections, said a statement released by the Election Commission of Pakistan.

They received threats and the election material was stolen from them by criminal elements, the commission stated, adding that the substitute officers, appointed by the district returning officers, were also threatened which is why they refused to perform their duties. The office of the chief election commissioner was also fired upon, it said.

The commission felt that Karachi’s residents showed admirable resolve by waiting all day to cast their votes. They are conducting investigations and will take action against the people responsible.

The election commission said, nevertheless, that the elections in other parts of the country were free and fair.The exception to this was Karachi where the commission was compelled to stop polls in 43 stations of NA-250. The commission added that the date for re-polls in 43 stations will be announced soon and all possible measures will be taken to ensure that the unfortunate events of the previous elections are not repeated.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 13^th, 2013.

In NA-250, the Election Commission of Pakistan has said that the process will be started from scratch in those polling stations from which complaints have been received.

One polling station where rigging was blatant was Aisha Bawany Secondary School, where the presiding officer, was watching a woman place stamps on ballot papers and slipping them into the ballot box.

The constituencies falling within district West also remained turbulent throughout Saturday. What began as a smooth start to a seemingly tranquil polling day in NA-242 quickly spiraled into chaos about an hour before noon. A small bomb planted in a bus rocked the area near Shaheen school, a polling station close to Kati Pahari. Polling was immediately suspended in the surrounding polling stations.

Violence was not the only hurdle here: like other parts of the city, voters and polling staff reported blatant hijacking of the election process amid the ECP mismanagement. A group of over 50 young men stormed the Government Boys Primary School, Pirabad, and manhandled the polling staff. While talking to The Express Tribune, Farhat Ali Khan, the presiding officer, said, “They tore half the ballot papers and took away the rest of them.”

More of the same was seen at the Government Degree College in SITE. Unidentified men barged into this polling station and threatened the staff, which scurried off to a separate room some distance away from where the booths had been set up. “They said they would take me to Kati Pahari if I don’t leave the room,” said the rather frightened presiding officer. “Are we here just to count votes as these people do whatever they like?”

Meanwhile, supporters of different political parties had erected barriers along routes which connected Lyari to Kharadar. The area falls in NA-249 – the constituency where a neck-and-neck competition was expected between Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM) Farooq Sattar and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) stalwart Abdul Aziz Memon.

The same happened in the heart of Lyari, where PPP’s Shah Jahan Baloch was vying for the same seat as MQM’s Nabeel Gabol. But here, markets were open and people, especially youngsters were dancing to the tune of Balochi and Sindhi songs, shouting support for PPP. The area might have a reputation for violence, but it remained peaceful on polling day.

At the other end of the city, near Landhi, people didn’t even have to make it all the way to the polling station to discover that their right to vote had been snatched. “You guys don’t need to go to the polling stations as your votes have already been cast,” an activist of a political party told a couple just as they were about to head out to vote.

According to Ashraf Samo, PPP candidate, the democratic process was also derailed in Malir. Reports of the hijacking of the election process also surfaced in NA-253. Umair, a 26-year-old man who did not get to cast his vote made an appeal to the authorities to declare the votes in his constituency null and void. “You can rig all you want. Karachi will not take your rubbish this time.”

Situation in the rest of Sindh 

Violence also ensued in parts of Upper Sindh, disrupting the election process here. Some party workers were bringing voters to polling stations in their vehicles. The staff complained about a lack of facilities and load-shedding during the midnight and in the early morning. In Larkana, the police arrested PPP activist Ghulam Rasool at the Baqrani tower polling station, trying to cast fake vote.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 12^th, 2013.