undisputed leader of both these Biradaris. By virtue of his family background, he is well-connected here too. The polling process at Aitcheson College, Lahore Camps Boys High School, Zaman Park with a total of 1,910 registered voters including 1,031 registered men and 879 women began at 8am in the morning on Sunday and continued till 5pm without any interruptions. A large PTI camp had been set up in the college grounds with music blaring from speakers and a good number of activities planned for the youngsters arriving to cast their votes. An impressive contingent of PTI women office-bearers equipped with voters’ lists facilitated women of all ages voting at the station. Meanwhile, the PML-N camp proved to be lackluster with only a few numbers of women and men present. Majority of those standing both men and women in the line voiced their support for Aleem Khan and Shoaib Siddiqi. Talking to The News, voters said that the last two and a half years of this government had shown poor performance on all standards. It is pertinent to note that Pakistan Peoples Party had no camp set up or any polling agents available at the venue despite Barrister Amir Hassan of PPP contesting for NA-122.
The rangers deployed undertook stringent measures to avoid foul play and even media personnel with Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) passes faced difficulty entering the polling booths.
It is noteworthy that at least four soldiers were deployed in each polling station while CCTV cameras have also been installed. Senior citizens and disabled voters complained however no arrangements had been made for their special needs at the station.
Turnout at the polling stations for men and women throughout the day was low however with less than 40 per cent of votes casted an hour before polling ended. Presiding officer at one of the booths set up for male voters, Anwar-ul-Haq, in the afternoon told The News that a turnout had been less than expected and few ballot copies had been used. Towards end of polling, numbers of voters increased but turnout allover recorded was low.
At Shadman Crescent High School which served as a polling station for both NA-122 and PP-147, the turnout was significantly better with a large number of families including people of ages coming to cast their vote. Presiding Officer Muhammad Ashraf Sajid informed The News that out of the total 1,511 male voters registered at his booth, 570 had casted their vote by lunchtime. Meanwhile, at the other booth set up for men, 625 out of 1425 male registered voters had cast their votes by the same time. At a women’s voting booth, a total of 400 women out of 1100 women voters had cast their votes at this time. Across this station, at the Wasa office serving as a polling station for Shah Jamal a vibrant scene of PML-N and PTI Jiyalas welcoming their respective leaders was witnessed. Presiding officer at the women voting booth Abida Hafeez informed that 467 women out of 1120 registered female voters had cast their votes by afternoon.