January 27, 2003	Monday	Ziqa’ad 23,1423

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LAHORE, Jan 26: There was no major disruption of law and order during polling for the by-election in PP-147 on Sunday. However, some minor incidents did occur.

Heavy police contingents had been deployed in all localities of the PP-147 constituency since early morning.

Policemen in groups of four or five had been deputed in all polling stations while a police patrol, too, was assigned duty at each of the stations.

Police teams also kept on checking every suspicious-looking person entering or leaving a polling station while bomb disposal squads and civil defence teams, too, were on full alert in the constituency.

Some supporters of the PML-Q resorted to aerial firing outside a polling station on the Infantry Road in Cantonment. MMA supporters alleged that they had caught a voter who was trying to cast a bogus vote at the polling station.

A clash between supporters of the two parties was reported. The police rounded up around nine people, who included three women, and took them to police station. However, Dharampura police later released them.

Another incident was reported outside a polling station in Mian Mir where MMA supporters caught some 50 women who were allegedly trying to cast bogus votes.

The women, occupying two vans, were surrounded by the MMA and not allowed to enter the polling station. The MMA alleged that those women had been brought from Shahdara and Ferozwala and did not belong to PP-147.

The police escorted those women to a safe place nearby, but did not allow them to cast their votes as they failed to prove their residence in PP-147. However, no case was registered against those women.