KARACHI, April 30: The minorities, specially Christians, took part in the presidential referendum on Tuesday with great gusto.

All the polling booths in Essa Nagri buzzed with activity where voters, mostly belonging to the Christian faith, cast their votes.

In PS-119 (UC-4, Gulshan Town) in Essa Nagri, 245 men and over 100 women had cast their vote by 4pm. There was a long queue of voters in the polling station. Musarrat, 29, said she was casting her vote in favour of President Gen Pervez Musharraf because he had done a lot for Christians.

In St. Michael’s School (PS-19) policemen on duty took it easy — with their shirts off as voters cast their votes. By 4pm, 171 men and 40 women had voted. Complaining about power shutdown in the school, a voter pointed out that a large number of electricity connections in the locality were “irregular”.

A polling station (PS-21) also operated in Iffat Elementary School in Essa Nagri.