Live: Elections 2024

Caretaker Interior Minister Gohar Ejaz has said polling has been smooth in Islamabad and throughout the country.

He made his comments at a press conference alongside the chair of the Commonwealth Observer Group, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

“By the grace of God, voting has been smooth in Islamabad. The camps of every party are present,” he said, adding that he hopes that whichever government comes into power will take Pakistan forward.

The PPP has urged Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa to “issue instructions” on the matter of internet services being suspended across the country, which it says has “impacted voter turnout”.

In a letter, PPP Central Election Cell Incharge Senator Taj Haider said that the party conveyed its “deep concern on the unannounced disruptions of internet”.

Haider pointed out the government’s move was in violation of the 2018 order by the Islamabad High Court that declared the suspension of mobile phone services on the pretext of “security concerns” illegal.

“The closure has also adversely affected reporting and responding to security incidents. One of our workers was shot dead in Mirpurkhas today and it was after an hour that we came to know about the murder,” the letter stated.

It also claimed that “all political parties except PML-N have objected” to the internet disruption. “In spite of our request to ECP to restore services, these services have not been restored.”

Caretaker Sindh Chief Minister retired Justice Maqbool Baqar has expressed satisfaction at the voter turnout in Karachi.

Speaking to reporters in Karachi, he said, “The pattern is the same [during each election] — there are more crowds after lunch. The [number of] voters will increase. Even right now, the turnout is not that bad.”

CM Baqar further said that the caretaker provincial government “fully cooperated” with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to conduct the polls. Ensuring that the polling staff reaches the stations was the duty of the ECP, he added.

The Karachi division of Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) has said that “massive rigging” is being carried out in the city by the PPP and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P).

“The shutdown of the mobile services is proof that a plan is being made to bring the desired people. Mobile services have also been shut down to hide evidence of fraud,” the party said.

“It is unfortunate that people’s money is being wasted like this,” it added, demanding strict against those “interfering in the election process”.

Jamaat-i-Islami leader Hafiz Naeemur Rehman, cast his vote in North Nazimabad and expressed serious concerns about communication disruptions due to the shutdown of mobile services.

In a video posted by the party on X, Rehman condemned the suspension of mobile services, labelling it a shameful stunt. He accused the government of paralysing the communication system on the day of the election.

Rehman noted instances of material being transported to polling stations via rickshaws as late as 9:30am and 10:30am, with several locations experiencing delayed or improper polling commencement.

Talking about polling station of NA-246 Orangi Town from where Rehman is contesting elections, he said that the preprations were incomplete and raised concerns about last-minute changes in presiding officers.

Expressing worry over pre-poll rigging and polling inconsistencies, Rehman warned that such issues could cast doubt on the legitimacy of the entire process.

The Election Correspondence Cell of the PTI in Sindh has urged the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to restore internet services across the country, saying that it was a “brazen assault on democracy”.

In a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Sikander Sultan Raja, election cell incharge Barrister Ali Tahir said the internet shutdown raised “serious doubts about the ECP’s commitment to fulfilling its constitutional duties”.

“The pretexts provided by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) for these internet blackouts are both flimsy and inadequate,” he asserted.

The statement further said, “The suspension of internet services on polling day represents a clear and brazen assault on democracy and the rule of law.”

“Please treat this as a note of protest and immediately order the restoration of [the] internet,” it added.

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has called on the nation to leave their homes and vote in order to participate in changing the destiny of the country.

“Voting is a national duty. I have done my duty,” he said in a post on X.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan’s (MQM-P) Dr Farooq Sattar has alleged that the Gizri police station house officer, in connivance with the PPP, were casting fake voters at a polling station in Karachi.

In a statement, he said that the alleged rigging was taking place at the Government Boys and Girls Secondary School in P&T Colony.

“The Election Commission of Pakistan should take immediate notice of this and stop this rigging,” he said. “I appeal to the management to sack the Gizri station house officer immediately,” he said.

The PPP has urged the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to take action on Shazia Marri’s complaint regarding “attempts to harass voters” at the Berani polling station of NA-209 (Sanghar-I).

In a letter written to Chief Election Commissioner Sikander Sultan Raja, PPP Central Election Cell Incharge Senator Taj Haider said that Marri had complained about the opposition candidate recruiting “volunteers through the police at the polling station”.

He urged CEC Raja to “take action” on the matter as per the law.

Caretaker Sindh Information Minister Ahmed Shah has said the decision to block internet and cellular services has been taken by the federal government keeping in view the recent terror incidents in Balochistan.

At least 28 people were killed in back-to-back blasts in Qila Saifullah and Pishin yesterday. Separately, JUI-F leader Hafiz Hamdullah survived a gun attack on his vehicle en route to Chaman.

Speaking to the media after casting his vote in Karachi, Shah said mobile and internet services would be restored if the security situation remained stable.

“It is very important to protect human lives,” he stated, adding that Pakistan’s enemies had kept an eye on the polling day and the caretakers were doing their best to ensure a smooth polling process.

In response to a question, Shah said shutting down mobile services was the prerogative of the federal government. “Definitely, they took this decision in light of security threats,” the minister added.

PPP Sindh president Senator Nisar Khuhro has cast his vote at Khosa Mohalla Rahmatpur School, Larkana.

Speaking to the media, Nisar said that the caretaker federal government should restore mobile phone services to prevent people from facing any problems.

“Keeping law and order under control is the responsibility of the caretaker government, which should not be punished by shutting down the phone service,” he said. “Shutting down mobile phones is a conspiracy to decrease the turnout.”

He urged the Election Commission of Pakistan to “immediately” issue orders to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and the caretaker government to restore mobile phone services. “If mobile phone services are not restored, there will be question mark on the results,” he added.

Pakistan goes to the polls today amid despair and uncertainty. For many, the outcome has already been decided, with one of the largest political parties having been effectively forced out of the race. Yet, surprises cannot be ruled out.

Whatever the result, the 2024 polls will have a huge impact on the future course of Pakistani politics. The most important question is: how would it change the country’s power equation?

With the PTI virtually out of the equation, the stage seems to have been set for Nawaz Sharif’s return to power. The resurrection of the three-time prime minister tells the story of the ever-shifting sands of Pakistani politics.

It is, however, not over yet. The polls could throw up many surprises. A large turnout could defy the odds. The return of a large number of ‘independents’ could alter the entire power game. A fragmented mandate could push the country’s politics onto uncharted territory. Sharif’s dream of being crowned for the fourth time may prove elusive. Let us wait for a new episode of the game of thrones post-Feb 8.

Read the full op-ed here.

Grenade attacks were reported in different parts of Balochistan, but polling remained unaffected since there were no casualties, Saeed Ahmed Umrani, commissioner of the Makran division, told Reuters.

Four policemen were martyred in a bomb blast and firing targeting a police patrol in the Kulachi area of Dera Ismail Khan district Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, local police chief Rauf Qaisrani said.

Meanwhile, one person was killed when gunmen opened fire on a security forces vehicle in Tank, Reuters reports.

Jamaat-i-Islami’s Karachi wing has requested the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to immediately restore internet services.

“The chances of rigging have greatly increased with the shutdown of mobile and internet services,” it said in a post on X. “The election commission should take notice and restore the service.”

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has demanded the immediate restoration of internet and cellular services across the country.

In a post on social media platform X, it said: “The ongoing disruption to services has occurred despite the Sindh High Court’s direction to the caretaker government to ensure uninterrupted internet services on polling day.”

“With the PTA claiming it has received no instructions from the government to block internet services, there is a worrying lack of transparency about where, when and how long the disruption will continue, thereby affecting voters’ right to information and potentially the transmission of results,” the HRCP said.

It added that those behind the outages should be identified and held responsible.

Google has showcased Pakistan’s general elections with a new logo on Google Doodle, the changeable logo on Google’s homepage. Today’s doodle shows a ballot box with the Pakistan flag displayed on the front.

Nighat Dad, a lawyer who runs the not-for-profit Digital Rights Foundation, has said the outage of mobile and internet services “is an attack on the democratic rights of Pakistanis”.

“Shutting down mobile phone services is not a solution to national security concerns. If you shut down access to information you create more chaos,” she told AFP.

Earlier in the day, the Interior Ministry said mobile phone services had been suspended across the country owing to security concerns. It must be noted that voters rely on a text messaging service, provided by the Election Commission of Pakistan, to confirm the polling station where they are registered.

Forty-year-old Abdul Jabbar said the internet disruption stopped him and his wife from using the service. “PTI supporters helped us to trace it in the end,” he told AFP.

Punches and kicks were exchanged after a clash erupted between two groups outside a polling station in Multan’s NA-149 constituency, Dawn News reports.

Following the incident, an additional contingent of police was called to Karim Town.

The Chairman of National Democratic Movement (NDM) and former member of the National Assembly, Mohsin Dawar, has written a letter to the chief election commissioner urging him to take notice of the security situation in North Waziristan.

In a post on X, he said the Taliban have “taken over the polling stations” in NA-40, Tappi.

“We have also filed an application with the police against an attack there on three of our female polling agents,” Dawar added.

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has called for the “normal functionality of mobile services to be restored” in the name of a fair democratic process.

Speaking to the media in Larkana, he said that the suspension of mobile services will impact voter turnout along with the security of the people if “incidents of violence were to happen”.

Most importantly, it would impact the coordination of polling agents during the counting of votes, he said.

PTI Zartaj Gul has said that crowds have gathered at all polling stations in Dera Ghazi Khan’s NA-185.

She requested the public to come out of their homes and “gift” their “valuable votes to prisoner number 804,” referring to Imran Khan.

Dawn.com staffer Azhar Khan faced an hour-long wait due to a reported shortage of staff at a polling station in Gulshan-i-Iqbal for Karachi’s NA-236 constituency.

At the Bright Future School polling station, police were only allowing a maximum of two people to enter every 20-25 minutes, citing a shortage of polling staff.

“This caused a few of the people to leave the queue, saying they would return once the crowd thinned out,” he says.

PTI leader Gohar Khan has requested citizens to exercise their right to vote, saying that people should get out in “maximum numbers” for their “freedom”.

He said that this was the day the citizens were waiting for, and it would prove to be a “critical point for Pakistan’s democratic history”.

He added that the the voting process so far had been going well.

According to Dawn.com correspondent Umar Bacha, poor arrangements by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), particularly the establishment of combined polling stations, has led to a low female turnout in Shangla, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The PPP has urged the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to take notice of a person’s death due to firing outside the guest house of the party’s president of Mirpurkhas tehsil (NA-242).

In a letter written to Chief Election Commissioner Sikander Sultan Raja, PPP Central Election Cell Incharge Senator Taj Haider said, “Alarming news coming from NA-212 (Mirpurkhas) that one person died in firing.”

He urged CEC Raja to “take action” on the matter as per the law.

Sindh Election Commissioner Sharifullah has taken notice of the snatching of ballot papers from the presiding officer of a polling station in Karachi’s NA-232 (Korangi-I).

The official has summoned a report of the incident in polling station number 37 from the returning officer and district monitoring officer concerned.

Directing police to take action against the miscreants involved, Sharifullah asserted that there would be “no compromise on the transparency” of the polls.

Independent candidate Jibran Nasir says the government has “robbed voters and political parties — specifically PTI and candidates — of their rights by shutting down mobile services across the country.”

“The power brokers are not only against our freedom of expression but also our right to information,” he said. “Anything which empowers the people is despised by the ruling class.”

“But we all have to rise above, take this challenge and step out to vote for the sake of democracy and our collective future,” he added.

In Karachi’s NA-238 constituency, a high voter turnout was observed outside the polling station, but operational inefficiencies led to long queues, according to KAS-Dawn.com fellow Hawwa Fazal.

Notably, there were inadequate provisions for the elderly and disabled individuals, compounding the challenges faced by voters. Naseer Khan, a voter visiting the DMSS Boys School polling station, recounted an incident where a woman — who had undergone a recent knee surgery — was unable to cast her vote due to the booths being located upstairs.

Khan expressed dismay over the situation, saying the presiding officer collected the necessary details for voter registration but failed to return promptly.

Khan said that with the help of some police officers, they carried the woman in her wheelchair to the upper floor. Upon reaching the voting booths, the presiding officer acknowledged the inconvenience and apologised.

When questioned about the delay, the presiding officer said that the station was allotted at 2am. He said that to facilitate the voters who could not climb the stairs, he personally went with a team member to help them cast their vote.

Senior journalist Kamran Khan has said that it is “heartening to see a pretty smart turnout even in the early hours of polling all across the country”.

“The encouraging voting pattern so far is very peaceful, with no serious incidents of violence reported from anywhere in the country,” he stated on X.

“Surprisingly, tech-savvy PTI boys and girls are beating severe restrictions to reach out to voters, guiding them on PTI candidates and election symbols in respective constituencies.”

According to Dawn editor (Kyber Pakhtunkhwa) Ismail Khan, the voter turnout across the province averaged nine per cent by 11:30am.

“It may pick up post lunch time,” he said.

PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif has urged people to get out and exercise their right to vote, specifically for his party.

He added that PML-N will combat the culture of “abuse” and “indecency”, adding that the party will also combat inflation and work for the people.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan’s (MQM-P) Dr Farooq Sattar has cast his vote at a polling station in Karachi’s PIB Colony.

Police teams have started patrolling sensitive areas in Faisalabad during the ongoing polling process.

A police spokesman said the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has established a total of 3,687 polling stations in the district, where 475 polling stations were declared most sensitive and 1,695 declared sensitive.

The police department has made tight security arrangements for these polling stations by deploying more than 16,900 security, the spokesperson said. He added that the dolphin force, elite force and quick response force were activated for thorough patrolling especially in sensitive areas to avert any untoward incident.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has directed the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) to issue a warning to Geo News and ARY News for continuously violating the code of conduct.

According to a spokesperson of the commission, the news channels, despite clear instructions from the ECP, aired statements and interviews of political leaders live.

Former climate change minister Sherry Rehman has filed a petition in Lahore’s election commission against the suspension of mobile and internet services.

Speaking outside the electoral watchdog’s office, Rehman expressed concern at the internet outage on election day and demanded that services be restored “urgently”.

The PPP leader said that suspending the internet services would “negate democracy and the polling process”, emphasising that candidates needed an internet connection to remain in touch with their polling agents.

“Our entire communication system depends on the internet. How will polling agents convey their complaints to us?”

The PPP vice-president stated that the party would approach the court as well regarding the matter. Rehman highlighted that the entire country had not been declared “sensitive”, adding that the security situation during the 2008 elections was worse.

“Extremely disappointed with the slow pace of the election process!” says Balochistan National Party-Mengal’s (BNP-M) Sardar Akhtar Mengal.

“One polling station in Kakhaher with 1,400 voters has only 40 votes casted so far, and another Peshi with 1,400 voters has only 60 votes. No contact with far-flung areas due to network issues,” he said.

Sindh Governor Kamran Khan Tessori has appealed to the people of the province to cast their votes today.

“All residents of the province must exercise their right to vote”, he said in a statement.

“I urge the elderly, women and youth to cast their votes for the right candidates after careful thought and consideration,” he added.

“The next five years depend on the results of these elections,” he added.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) leader Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui has expressed confidence in winning 40 seats in the Sindh Assembly.

Speaking to reporters in Karachi, Siddiqui said, “God-willing, we will win around 40 provincial seats. There is no contest on 16 seats in Karachi while there is one on two seats.”

In an apparent reference to the Jammat-i-Islami, he said that political parties should be “serving religion” but instead they “use religion to serve themselves”. “They term their symbol the scales of justice,” he said.

PML-N’s Attaullah Tarar hit back at a reporter who said that PTI voters were scared to say out loud that they had voted for a PTI candidate.

“No one can cure fear,” he said while talking to the media in Lahore. “They charged Rana Sanaullah in a heroin case but he didn’t run and cry.”

“Their voters are coming and no one is stopping them. Tell me where have they been stopped?” he asked.

“I have not seen such an issue here where anyone was stopped. I think there is freedom and ECP has made the arrangements very well,” Tarar added.

Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) leader Hafiz Naeemur Rehman has decried the suspension of mobile services on election day.

Speaking to the media in Karachi after casting his vote, he said, “This is a great injustice with the 250m population of Karachi, where they have shut down mobile services.”

There are elements of the 2018 election atmosphere — allegations of pre-poll rigging and an unfair contest, fears about manipulation and security threats — but they feel even more pronounced as the head of the country’s most popular party — and his party symbol — are out of the race.

Camp PML-N oozes the cool confidence of a would-be victor — a sharp contrast from the last election when the three-time former premier Nawaz Sharif was incarcerated. Then his party was the clear underdog, but the situation could not be more different today. With a campaign largely confined to Punjab launched as late as mid-January, the Sharif family flew to and from rallies in a helicopter, and had to often exit early as they explained to their supporters that they had to fly out before darkness.

What does their voter think? “Nawaz Sharif has the magic wand, and he will wave it when he comes to power,” a supporter told me in a busy market in central Punjab. But he warned: “We are prepared to wait for the economic situation to improve, but this time he must complete his term.”

No doubt, his return to Pakistan has reinvigorated the party and its vote bank, but was there enough fire in his public engagements? Will it help the PML-N cross that coveted three-digit threshold to make government?

Read more here.

Outside a polling station in Islamabad, 22-year-old psychology student Haleema Shafiq says she is determined to vote.

“I believe in democracy. I want a government that can make Pakistan safer for girls,” she told AFP.

But another voter expressed the doubts of many.

“My only fear is whether my vote will be counted for the same party I cast it for. At the same time, for the poor it does not matter who is ruling — we need a government that can control inflation,” said Syed Tassawar, a 39-year-old construction worker.

PTI Information Secretary Raoof Hasan has told AFP that the internet outage “will impede the work that our activists are doing on the ground to get people to the polling stations”.

“The physical space given to us has been completely cut out so we are totally dependent on connectivity through the net,” he said.

Strict arrangements have been made for security in Karachi’s district Korangi, said SSP Hassan Sardar Ahmed Khan.

He said that the polling process had started and 5,271 police personnel were posted on election duty for security.

District Korangi has 725 polling stations out of which 509 polling stations have been declared highly sensitive and 216 sensitive, he said.

NetBlocks, a global internet watchdog, has said that the ongoing internet suspension in Pakistan was “inherently undemocratic” and known to “cause irregularities in the voting process”.

“The ongoing election day internet blackout in Pakistan is amongst the largest we’ve observed in any country in terms of severity and extent,” NetBlocks director Alp Toker told AFP.

“The practice is inherently undemocratic and is known to limit the work of independent election observers and cause irregularities in the voting process.”

Dawn.com staff Siham Basir witnessed a “dismal” voter turnout at a polling station in Karachi’s NA-241 constituency. She said the lines were not very long at the Government Girls College, Zamzama and by the time she left, there was no line at all.

“One polling officer seemed completely untrained because she was not even able to cross our names out let alone find our names efficiently. The greatest inefficiency was in checking the electoral rolls,” she said.

“At my polling station, there were a lot of elderly people — people in wheelchairs and using walking sticks — but they were made to walk up a flight of stairs instead of a facility being made available on the ground floor. I witnessed one elderly man being carried up in his wheelchair and one man having to physically lift his mother up the stairs so she could vote,” she noted.

“Despite going at 8am and being among the first people there, some of the polling agents were rude and were yelling. They also didn’t check for mobile phones — a man pulled out his phone in front of me to ask the presiding officer something,” she said.

The Faisalabad police have uprooted the camps set up by candidates outside polling station number 340 at MC High School in the district’s NA-101 constituency.

According to Dawn.com correspondent Kashif Hussain, the camps were uprooted as they were established within a distance of 100 metres from the polling station, which was against the rules.

Video footage showed policemen tearing down party banners and uprooting polling camps of the PML-N and other candidates.

A low voter turnout was reported at a polling station in North Nazimabad’s Block I for Karachi’s NA-250 constituency.

Dawn.com staffer Mashael Shah said she reached the Ibrahim Ali Bhai Govt School at 10am to cast her vote, adding that attendance was thin.

“It took five minutes to go in and vote and there was practically no wait,” she said. She further said that only the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) had set up a camp outside the polling station.

The polling process has started in Karachi’s district Central, according to SSP District Central Zeeshan Shafique Siddiqui.

More than 2.1 million voters are exercising their right to vote at a total of 391 polling buildings and 1,255 polling stations, he said, adding that police had made full security arrangements in this regard.

He said that 685 polling stations have been declared highly sensitive while 570 polling stations have been declared sensitive. More than 8,900 male and female police officers have been deputed for security while 7,645 officers are posted at polling stations, he added.

The highly sensitive polling stations are also being monitored with the help of CCTV cameras, according to the SSP.