KARACHI: While the voter turnout remained low in almost every locality of the metropolis — as some say it was because of the boycott of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement factions while some saying it was the cold weather — it was more of an outing for those coming to vote in the local government polls.

Though most people knew the reason for the small voter turnout being due to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM) pulling out of the competition at the last minute, there were also some confused elderly folks at the polling stations saying that they were going to vote only for the MQM. When informed about the latest, they just turned on their heel and left without casting their votes. Then the carts selling oranges and guavas outside almost every other polling station interested them far more than the election itself.

Even though most who voted claimed to be Pakistan Peoples Party or Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf supporters, thanks to various party alliances, too, Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman and his Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) had to be the biggest winner as far as the number of posters, banners and flags put up in the city went.

It was nice to see most of the voters coming with their children. “They had questions about this election as they have been watching news on TV regarding it. So I thought it best to show them practically what it is all about,” a mother told Dawn.

No water, no electricity, no gas, broken roads, does anyone care for city, a voter asks

With an overall small turnout of voters in most areas, there were also a few areas worth noting for their unbelievably high turnout of voters such as Paharganj in district Central and Sultanabad in district Keamari.

Wherever there was an outpouring of voters, so big that they were falling over each other, the voters had to be Pakhtoon, though divided between their voting preferences of PPP, PTI and JI.

In areas like North Nazimabad, North Karachi, Federal B Area, Liaquatabad, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, etc, there was more rush on petrol pumps, halwa-puri shops and markets than polling stations.

During a visit to Paharganj, you ran into little boys campaigning in bright woollen green, red and black pakol caps and matching scarves that they had tied around their necks in the style of scouts at Paharganj. While they were obviously too young to vote, you also saw men wearing maroon pakol caps with ‘ANP’ inscribed on the front with matching mufflers. The alliance was going to get PPP all their votes.

UC-20 Councillor Dil Mohammad was the name on many voters’ lips at Abdullah College. “He is the one who feels our pain. His heart beats for the people and he has our heart,” Mohammed Yousuf, a resident of Pajarganj, told Dawn.

A little away, in UC-9 or Ward 4 of PS126, only one voter said that she was going to vote for JI. “I will vote for Luqman Wali because I am Maliha Imran Wali, his niece,” she said proudly.

At the same place, voter Saeed Jalal, while commenting on the late PPP Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s picture on a scarf said: “I carry great respect for her but she is gone. All other politicians with weight are also either dead or half dead. I only see the solution in voting for the strongest people now who want to do some good work too. I will vote for JI,” he said.

Bumpy roads

Between the paint and pansari shops of UC-10 North Nazimabad, the facilitation camps of JI and PTI wore a deserted look. But right across, there were the PPP camps looking glamorous.

Meanwhile, the trip to Shadman in North Karachi on very bad and bumpy roads also turned out to be an exercise in vain as there were more people at the petrol pumps than there. “With MQM pulling out of this election, what else did you expect? The population here is predominantly Urdu-speaking,” a resident of the area, not interested in voting, commented.

There were longer queues for halwa puri and chanay aloo at Dhamthal Sweets, Bakers and Nimco in F. B Area than was at the polling stations.

At Ward 3, the Islamic Centre at Aisha Manzil, polling started half an hour late. “There are six polling booths here and there were no staff here at 9am,” informed Owais Baig, a JI candidate. “The presiding officers who arrived then themselves didn’t know how to vote to advise others. The ballot papers also got mixed up between the wards. Just behind us, in Ward 4 Naseerabad, polling was delayed because of lack of equipment or polling staff. Some polling booths didn’t even have ballot boxes. They still haven’t got them and it’s past noon,” the JI candidate told Dawn.

In Liaquatabad, people were far more interested in checking out khussa footwear, the tall towers of cooking pots balanced over each other or in getting their fans or washing machines repaired than coming to vote.

At the APWA Government School for Girls, Presiding Officer Syed Navaid Naqvi said that in his nine years of working for the Election Commission, he had never seen such a low turnout. “It’s 1.05pm and the first women vote was cast just now while only seven men have cast their votes here till now,” he said.

The sophisticated and well-educated voters of Gulshan-i-Iqbal were very much aware about their problems and whom to vote for in order to see some solution to those problems but so many of them could not vote as some didn’t feel the need to come out to do the needful on a chilly Sunday morning and even if they did, many among them got confused about their polling stations to then just turn around and head home without casting their votes though stopping somewhere on the way for a nice brunch to cheer themselves up.

At Primrose Public School and Sir Adamjee Coaching System, one met Mariam Waqar so happy to be voting for the first time in her life. But her cousin Anusha Ali, who just turned 18 last September, was found just playing with her new CNIC as she was still not registered as a voter. Then she just pocketed her identity card before she lost it.

One ran into a Farooq Ganatra fan club at Safoora Town, a little ahead of Karachi University. The PTI candidate’s biggest fans, his toddler granddaughter Daneen Shahzada and 10-year-old son Nabeel Ganatra were there to campaign for him. Too bad they couldn’t vote for him.

Inside the polling station, a female voter said no thank you to ‘tabdeeli’ or change, the PTI slogan. “I’ve seen how expensive cooking oil and other eatables can become thanks to change. So thank you very much. I will not vote for the bat,” she said.

“But why should ‘change’ have to be about PTI only? Change can also be something else, something good. This is not a policy-making election. It is an election for whoever will provide good services,” said Mohammed Kashif, another voter there.

Mr and Mrs Munawwar were heard asking at a polling station in Malir what problems Karachi didn’t have. “There are not one or two problems that the people of this city face. We are a can of problems. There is no water, no electricity and no gas. The roads are so bad that my car’s suspension is in tatters. Does anyone care? I feel quite hopeless. But then when I look back, I remember one person, Naimatullah Khan, who had delivered for this city. It is because of that that I am here today to put my stamp on the weighing scales,” said Mrs Munawwar.

“I do feel that PTI also has its heart in the right place. But Imran Khan doesn’t have the team to do the work for Karachi. PPP does have the team but they lack the will. Hafiz Naeem of JI, on the other hand, has the will and the team, so he has my vote,” said Mr Munawwar.

Amid the sprawl of flea markets, lots and lots of rickshaws, open sewers, there was the Government Polytechnic Institute, Landhi, bang opposite to a garbage dump with several grazing cows and two little puppies ruffling through the trash. “I have voted hoping for the very best. The rest I leave in God’s hands,” said Ali Ahmed Nur, a voter coming out of the polling station. It’s the most important vote of all, not for politicians but for the good of the city, to bring change from the ground up,“ he said.

The children near a polling station in Korangi kept on bouncing on their trampoline, uncaring about what went on around them. A hidden school behind a black tent, certainly not a facilitation camp but one put up outside a home mourning someone’s passing, had smattering of voters even in the latter part of the second half. The answer to the question about lack of voters lay in the shape of those fluttering MQM flags and bunting tied to the overhead wires.

“I am sick of the car showrooms, the shops, too, which encroach on the footpaths. If not on the main roads, then they block our lanes,” said Saba Arif, a voter at a JI camp in PECHS being manned by twin sisters Munika and Muniza.

Sui Gas, water shortage, electricity outages weighed on the minds of voters in Burnes Road. This was also one of the few areas where one stumbled upon a TLP facilitation camp with the election symbol of the chair.

At the TCF Nagina Police Line Campus in Keamari Mussarat and husband Abdul Rauf were also sick and tired about no gas in the stoves for as long as 24 hours also. But they were not talking about whom they were going to vote for who could rid them of the problem.

Still, the rickshaws and motorcycles in the area all sported PPP flags. But at places you could also mistake those banners with PTI banners if you didn’t look carefully.

Hijrat Colony, also falling in the Keamari area, had the biggest rush outside the GGSS Intelligence School Sultanabad close to 5pm. So many voters there wore the traditional pakol caps, and those not wearing those were wearing the PPP, ANP, PTI pakol caps, badges and mufflers. It was like coming full circle. It was also just like the early morning voters of Paharganj, falling over each other and putting in almost equal balance the arrow and the bat in the absence of the real election symbol of the balancing scales.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2023