After waking up at about 11am(its a holiday after all), i and my family proceeded after breakfast and a customary news glance to our local polling station. Our area is Sharfabad, the Halka NA 252 and the city Karachi.
I was quite pleasantly shocked to witness total calm, the neighborhoods families were all walking to the polling station to cast their votes. The usual air of excitement and tension was missing however and the whole area wore a deserted bare look. The only activity to be seen was in the M.Q.M camp where people were lining up to get their voting booth numbers from polling lists, which were being provided diligently.
My mother and grandmother had also accompanied me and as we walked into the polling station there were election officials present to guide us to our respective polling booths. The staff was very cordial and nice, again a huge surprise for me as i have taken part in many previous elections and always found the election staff to be rude and boisterous. After voting my grandmother was even offered a seat as the rest of my family completed our voting!! Yes it may sound quite ordinary to some international friends of ours, but small courtesies like these are previously unheard off in our electoral process.
We were done with the whole process (all three of us) under 20 minutes. We did not face a single problem and our whole experience was quite satisfactory. True after coming back and having watched the news, i must admit there are certain question marks as some violence has taken place, specially in Punjab and N.W.F.P but as far as my own area and experience is concerned, it was very well planned and executed by the respective authorities.
So well done to whoever is responsible 🙂
I would like to urge all my fellow Pakistanis, to go out and vote, i do not think there is any reason not to, and there are no hassles or problems either!!! Be Part of the process!!