KARACHI: On Thursday, June 15, netizens woke up to see a Google doodle that depicted a ballot box with the Pakistani flag on it. Some of them harboured the thought that it had to do with the mayoral election that was to take place at the Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi. It didn’t turn out to be the case.

According to one nugget of information, the doodle is a reminder to Pakistanis of the general elections that are supposed to be held in October this year since the National Assembly’s term is ending on Aug 13. Could it be that Google mixed up the mayoral election with the ones to be held in October? Not sure.

Now the mayor’s election usually takes place in the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation’s (KMC) colonial structure. This was a rare occasion when the venue has been shifted to the Arts Council. The reason given for it was the fast (or not-so-fast) approaching Cyclone Biparjoy. If it were to hit today, the supposition was, that proceedings at the KMC office were more likely to get disrupted compared to the Arts Council.

This is a tad hard to fathom because both buildings are not far away from each other, and when a thunderstorm strikes the city, the roads flanking the council get as much inundated with water as M A Jinnah Road where the KMC structure is located.

The council may have been requested to take quick measures to make arrangements for the whole process to go unhampered. After all, the entire country was focused on it.

There were a sizable number of policemen and Rangers personnel guarding the area on Thursday. I. I. Chundrigar Road was blocked for vehicular traffic and pedestrians from Shaheen Complex to the roundabout to the right of which there’s a petrol station.

The council’s main entrance was heavily manned by the law enforcement agencies. No one was allowed to get in.

The gate of the building opposite the National Academy of Performing Arts (Napa) was opened for those who were to cast their votes. In front of the gate, a small tent was put up to screen those who wished to enter the premises.

The media had begun to gather outside the entrance from the morning but not all of them were allowed to step in. The strictness was a little bamboozling. After all, it was an election that the media’s supposed to cover.

After midday, a group of men representing the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) made its way through the police cordon chanting slogans, praising their candidate and criticising their opponent. They came in front of the tent and kept chanting for a while. A clash between supporters of the Pakistan Peoples Party and the JI was imminent.

A little before 2pm, it was announced that the PPP’s Murtaza Wahab was now the new mayor of Karachi after securing 173 votes.

While all of this was unfolding, Google removed its ballot box doodle.

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2023