KARACHI: The turnout of voters belonging to religious minorities remained low as, what is being described as an ‘election settlement drama’ between the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan appears to have kept Karachiites confused about the local government polls till the eleventh hour.

However, despite an unusually cold winter weather some ‘diehard elders or enthusiast youngsters’ left their warm homes to cast vote to elect their representatives with the expectations that they might resolve their everyday problems at the grassroots level.

Karachi’s Bishop Benny Mario Travis flanked by Father Mario Rodriguez visited a polling station set up in the NVJ School, where they cast their vote.

“We voted for the Sindh government”, Father Rodriguez reluctantly told Dawn, making an indirect reference to the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

During interviews most of the voters in the city’s neighbourhoods dominant with the Christian and Hindu population mostly voiced in the favour of the province’s ruling PPP.

However, some others chose to vote for the opposition party Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, as the boycott by the city’s traditionally politically dominant MQM-P created a room for the former.

Most members of the Christian and Hindu minorities live in the Katchi Abadis due to continuous negligence on the part of all political parties, including ethnic and religious parties.

Low turnout was also witnessed in the Azam Basti, Essa Nagri, Pahar Gunj and other localities.

Mehmoodabad, which is believed to be the largest Chris­tians settlement having a total vote bank of over 180,000, was decorated with the colourful flags having pictures of candidates backed by the ruling PPP, the Muttahida Qaumi Move­ment-P, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and some independent candidates.

Under the shadow of the political banners describing the aspiring candidates as ‘honest, upright and dedicated’ there were unpaved streets with overflowing sewers, no streetlights and haphazardly built small houses.

Zeenat Gulzar, a female priest at the St Peter’s Church in Akhtar Colony said her two sons had voted for the PPP while two others for the PTI.

However, the 70-year-old voter recalled that while she had been voting for the PPP throughout her life, two years ago her name went missing from the voter list and none of the candidates had made an attempt to trace it this year, thus she could not vote.

Many voters from the area were critical of the PPP’s Saeed Ghani, who has won the provincial assembly seat, PS-104, ‘twice’, for failing to address their basic problems.

Master Rasheed Masih said the electricity supply to the area remained suspended for three hours four times a day, there was no water, no gas. “What has Mr Ghani done during his two tenures,” he questioned.

Mr Rasheed said his children choose to vote for an independent candidate and another backed the MQM-P without realising that the latter had boycotted the polls.

In the Hindu dominant localities in Keamari and Ranchore Lane, the voters said that they mostly voted for the Pakistan Peoples Party.

“In Keamari our community members largely voted for a PPP-ba­cked candidate Humayyun Khan while in Ran­chore Lane they voted for an independent candidate Farooq Ali Hoti,” community leader Kailash Vishram told Dawn.

However, a low turnout was witnessed at the polling stations, where the election staffers were seen sitting idle or entertaining little number of voters turning up to use their right to franchise.

Ravi Das, another community welfare worker, told Dawn that there were around 400 members of the Hindu community living in Chhota Gate, where they had voted both for the PPP and PTI, because the MQM had boycotted.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2023