The Afghans who wanted to vote in Pak polls

The telephone calls started pouring in from early morning. There were callers - all of them hungry for some credible news -- from all over the world - Holland, Norway, India, France, the United Kingdom and United States.

It was election day in Pakistan. Although I am registered as a voter in Thatta, due to health reasons, I have been confined to Karachi.

Every voter wanted to know what will happen if President Pervez Musharraf's opponents succeeded. The voters were also apprehensive about the law and order situation, which was the main cause for the low turnout of women voters.

Earlier, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement members had distributed pamphlets asking locals to come to the polling camps and report to the camp in-charge.

The government has already issued directions to the army, paramilitary forces and police forces to shoot those creating trouble during the election.

At one polling station at Gulzar Hijri in Karachi, a middle-aged man and his female companion were not allowed to cast their vote and wanted to lodge a formal complaint. I contacted a Ranger officer and a police constable stationed at the polling station and explained that both the voters have new national identity cards.

But the presiding officer of the election booth objected to a mistake in their old national identity card numbers, which had been incorporated in the new identity cards as well.

We said that since both voters were holding new NICs issued by the interior ministry, the mistake in the old NIC number ought to be ignored. The presiding officer at the polling booth was consulted about the matter and agreed.

At some polling stations, the names of the voters were missing from the voters' list, and these lists had to be changed. The MQM brought women to the polling stations in wagons and other vehicles.

Reports from Larkana aid Pakistan People's Party's Sindh chief Nisar Ahmad Khuhro's was manhandled and his clothes torn. He was reportedly mistreated by Ghanwa Bhutto, wife of the late Mir Murtaza Bhutto.

The MQM occupied one of the polling stations in Abbas Town. MQM activists ejected the members of other political parties from the polling station.

At another polling station, I was informed that 1,800 ballot papers were recovered from the house of a MQM candidate.

At Maimar polling station, 4,000 ballot papers/forms were recovered from MQM member Naib Nazim, who had taken away the ballot boxes.

Some voters alleged that the MQM had not allowed them to cast their votes and they were told that their names were not included in the voters' lists.

At yet another polling station nearby, 1,800 ballot papers were recovered from the MQM and the polling station was closed after an incident of firing.

At Maimar and Pioneer Housing Project in Karachi, many Afghans complained that their names had not been included in the voters' list. I had to tell them that as they were not Pakistani nationals, they were not entitled to be registered as voters.

When a Pathan labourer was asked why he was not voting, he said he will not vote for the kafirs. None of the candidates were true Muslims, he believed, as they were not constructing graveyards, mosques or madrassas.

At another polling station, a Ranger officer said no untoward incident had taken place. But people complained that there had been incidents of firing. Members of the MQM and PPP told me that their camp offices had been evicted at 1.45 pm, and the police and paramilitary forces had been mere bystanders and not taken any action.

One disappointed Sindhi-speaking voter told me that his 40 members of his family had not voted in the last election. But in today's election, their names were missing from the voters' lists.

The writer is an advocate and the president of the Sindh Rural Workers Cooperative Organisation.