KARACHI: Some residents of Karachi did not vote on Saturday because their polling stations happened to be in another part of the country.

Advocate Tariq Hassan from Lyari who has a vote in Gwadar said he understood that not voting was bad but he still tried to do his duty by convincing people to vote for his candidate through social media.

“It also helps me keep a safe distance as I broadcast my views about who we should or shouldn’t vote for, because such talk often starts heated debates. I, too, don’t want to get on peoples’ nerves so much so that they’d want to kill me,” the lawyer chuckled.

Getting serious, he said that while he might have voted in Karachi, he did not go to Gwadar to do the same. “It’s not easy to go there by bus so going to my hometown was out.

And I know that my family there, too, will think twice before going out to the polling station in Gwadar to cast their vote as it is not safe to do so. I could have tried getting registered here but who has the time and patience for all that paperwork,” he said.

Dildar Ahmed, who lives in Korangi but has Abbottabad mentioned on his CNIC as his permanent address, said he had filed for registration as a Karachi voter but did not get a response. “I voted from Karachi in 2008 but now they have made Government Girls High School, Pind Kargu Khan, Abbottabad, my polling station,” he remarked.

Samina Mumtaz, a resident of DHA Phase-II, showed the message she received on her cellphone. It directed her to reach them after the elections. “See, it reads election ke baad rabta karain,” she said, adding that just a month ago she was registered as a voter at a school near Boat Basin. “But apparently I am supposed to vote in Bahawalpur now,” she shared.

“I really wanted to vote so I tried for postal ballot but they asked me for my migration certificate, which as far as I know is not really a requirement for it. I was born in Karachi, by the way,” she said.

“Still if Nadra acknowledges the permanent address on my card then if I am filling up forms for postal ballot, why aren’t the government officials attesting them? It seems that they were only offering that facility to army officers and government servants,” she complained.

“I could go to Bahawalpur to vote there but what if I didn’t even exist on the list there?” she shrugged.

Meanwhile, Wazir Ali, who is registered as a voter in Gilgit, said he might have gone to his hometown to cast his vote. “But now as my candidate Pervez Musharraf has not been allowed to contest the polls, I wouldn’t vote even if I was registered in Karachi,” he said, adding that he had been responsible for plenty of development in Gilgit.

Ahmed Imtiaz, who is registered in Swat, said he had resolved to vote in 2018. “I respect the Election Commission of Pakistan’s decision to register people according to the permanent address on their ID cards. The only thing that bothers me is that I won’t be voting this time around as going home isn’t very practical right now but there is always a next time,” he smiled.

Razi Imam Mallick, who is registered in Risalpur, also said that he was on leave pre retirement [LPR] at the moment and just shifting to Karachi so going back to Risalpur just to vote was not easy. “What the government or the Election Commission could have done was assist the genuine and confirmed voters like us by arranging postal balloting for us or by the Internet,” he suggested.

Arsalan Murtaza, who is registered as a voter in Hyderabad and resides in Karachi, said that he wasn’t even interesting in voting so his polling station being in the next city wasn’t that big a deal. “My political ideas are a bit different from other people. I don’t vote at all so it doesn’t matter if I’m registered in Karachi or Hyderabad,” he said. “I mean, what’s the use? It will be the same old faces running the show here no matter who votes or not,” he announced.

Note: Some names have been changed on the request of the interviewees.