NA-246 still home turf for the MQM

Karachi
Except for a skirmish between activists of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) at Karimabad as polling for the hot political tryst concluded on Thursday, the heavy deployment of Rangers and police seemed to have paid off.
The security arrangements at the 2013 general election, when political parties were also under the radar of terrorist forces, felt like nothing as compared to the heavy deployment of law enforcers for this by-election.
Rangers personnel, assisted by the police force, were deployed in and outside polling stations where residents were seen to be waiting in queues to cast their votes.
According to unofficial results declared by midnight, the MQM candidate Kunwar Naveed Jameel emerged victorious on NA-246 with more than 93,000 votes and 33 percent of the registered constituents turning up to exercise their right to vote.
Most of the polling stations were squeezed into small schools other private facilities and the elderly voters had to climb stairs to be able to cast their vote.
The presence of women voters seemed to be quite prominent as they began thronging polling stations accompanied by families early in the morning.
In the polling station in Liaquatabad No 10, six booths had been set up for men and woman standing in a long queue which emerged outside the venue.
Each voter had to pass by at least three different law-enforcement personnel to be able to reach inside the polling booth and cast his or her vote.
Rangers personnel, along with presiding officers and policemen were seen checking the CNICs of voters, leading the MQM to allege deliberate delays to reduce the number of votes being cast for the party.
On the other hand, there were also several overseas Pakistanis who had come home to cast their votes. One of them, a young man and a PTI supporter, said he voted for Imran Ismail because he wanted to see a change in the country’s culture and more job opportunities for youths like himself.
Meanwhile, the staff inside polling station at Delhi School performed their duties in darkness and sweltering heat, with the fan not working and the lone bulb barely giving any light.
Meanwhile, Samina Abdul Aziz, a homemaker from Karimabad, did not sleep the whole night because she wanted to be the first one at her polling station to cast her vote.
At the Moulvi Abdul Haq School near Masjid-e-Rizwan, near the JI’s election office, a Faheem Ahmed was turned out by the Rangers for not having his CNIC even though his name was on the voters’ list.
On the other hand, several women voters at in Liaquatabad No 9 mistakenly took their belongings inside the polling stations when they were asked to leave them behind. One of them, Khairunnisa, was quite amused and demanded the presence of more personnel. “I can’t allow a male police officer to look inside my purse,” she said. “They have no business being inside a polling station for women. This is inappropriate.”
Though the whole constituency is said to be a stronghold of the MQM, it was proved by the abundance if banners and election posters. On the other hand, it was hard to find even an election office of the PTI.