KARACHI, Oct 10: Voters’ turnout in three national and six provincial assemblies constituencies i.e. NA-251, NA-252 and 253 and PS-114 to 119, falling in the jurisdictions of Jamshed and Gulshan-i-Iqbal towns, varied at various polling stations.

Though no brisk polling was witnessed at any of the polling stations visited by this correspondent in these constituencies, a heavy rush of voters was seen at the three polling stations set up at the PECHS Government Senior Model School for the voters belonging to thickly-populated Lines Area and partly PECHS Block 2.

Apart from the private security guards deployed for the first time, a heavy police posse was deployed near the polling stations at Lines Area.

The area had remained tense throughout the campaign as the locality is described as a stronghold of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM-H) and here the Muttahida Qaumi Movement workers and candidates could not enter for canvassing during entire electioneering.

An office-bearer of MQM’s Society Sector, Latif Amir, who was manning his party’s polling camp near Lines Area, complained that although their workers had set up polling camps behind Lines Area in the wee hours of Thursday, they could not distribute election material among voters of Lines Area.

Some of the voters complained that since the polling staff was issuing two separate ballot papers, each for National and Provincial Assemblies seats, they had to wait for a long time at the polling booths.

Residents of Bangalore Town who were present outside the Bangalore Town High School said that they were deprived of their right of franchise by the polling staff on the plea that their names were not mentioned in the electoral lists provided to them by the Election Commission.

“It was shocking for me to know that voters list available at the polling station did not contain my and my father’s names although our names were present in the electoral lists of 1997 elections and we had cast our votes in the 1997 polls,” a perturbed resident of Bangalore Town, Waris Ali Khan, said.

A number of presiding officers of the polling stations set up in Jamshed and Gulshan-i-Iqbal Towns complained that since they were provided dried ink-pads by the Election Commission, they had to face difficulties in acquiring proper ink-pads as most of the books shops were closed on Thursday.

The presiding officer of the polling station set up at Senior Model School, Gulzar Ahmed Khan, told Dawn that there were in all three polling stations in the school and two of them had four polling booths (two each for male and female) and another had two booths (one each for male and female) and the number of votes cast at its different polling booths differed from each other.

For instance, at one of its polling booth (male) there were in all 545 registered voters, and of them 350 were cast by 3.50 pm.

The other polling booth, also of male, had 349 registered voters and of them 120 votes were cast by 3.45 pm.

At a polling booth set up for female voters at the same polling station, there were in all 272 registered voters and of them only 54 had cast their votes by 3.40pm. The other female booth of the same polling station had 200 voters registered and 90 were cast by 3.30pm.

At another polling station set up at Government Boys School (Farabi), Muslimabad, there were four polling booths (two each for male and female voters).

The presiding officer of the polling station, Hafiz Nazar Mohammad, giving details of the votes cast, said a total of 1,650 votes were registered at all the four polling booths and of them 800 were cast by 2 pm.

He complained of receiving poor quality ink-pads from the Election Commission.

At another polling station set up at National High School, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, a total of 1,766 voters were registered at its four polling booths (2 each for male and female) and of them 700 votes were cast by 4.30 pm.

At one of its two female polling booths, only 38 votes were cast by 4.35pm whereas the number of registered voters at the same polling booth was 437.

The presiding officer, Aziz-ur-Rehman, said except for the dried ink-pads provided by the Election Commission, everything else went smoothly at the polling station.

The polling station at Bangalore Town School had 1,443 registered voters at its four polling booths, two each for male and female voters.

According to a polling officer of the station, in all 805 voters were registered at both the male polling booth and of them 419 were cast by 4.50pm and at both the female polling booths where the number of registered voters was 618 and of them 265 were cast by 4.58pm.

The NA-251 constituency, spreading over eight-and-half of the total 13 union councils of Jamshed Town, comprised behind Jacob Lines, PECHS, Jutland Lane, Abbysinia Lines, Chanesar Goth, Mehmoodabad, Liaquat Ashraf Colony, Azam Basti, Kashmir Colony, Manzoor Colony, Akhtar Colony, Junejo Town, Defence Bungalows.

Thought there were in all 22 candidates for the NA-251, the main contestants included Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Syed Safwanullah, Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal’s (MMA) Abdul Ghaffar Umer Kabedia, PML-N’s Mushahidullah Khan and PPP’s Qaiser Khan Nizamani.

The total population of the constituency was 481,896, having 210,491 (119,865 male and 90,626 female) voters.

The NA-251 has two seats of the Sindh Assembly (PS-114, PS-115).

There were in all 19 candidates in the run but a triangular fight was expected between Rauf Siddiqui of Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Sardar Abdul Rahim of PML(N), Zahoor-ul-Haque Jadoon and SDA’s Irfan Marwat.

In NA-252 which is based on old NA-192, there were in all 14 candidates and the constituency comprised eight union councils of Jamshed and Gulshan-i-Iqbal Towns.

The constituency’s localities include Khudadad Colony, Hyderabad Colony, PECHS Block 2 and 3, PIB Colony, Jamshed Quarters, Jehangir Road, Old Sabzi Mandi, Essa Nagri, Gulshan-i-Iqbal block 14, Aga Khan Hospital, Dhoraji, Muhammad Ali Society, Bangalore Town, Garden East, Patel Para, Parsi Colony and Kachchi Abadis in its vicinities. There were two provincial assembly’s seats i.e. PA-116 and PA-117.

The total population of the NA constituency is 449,409, having 224,179 (122,895 male and 101,284 female) registered voters.

The NA-253 is spread over Gulshan-i-Iqbal blocks 1 to 9, 11, 13, 15 to 19, Safari Park, Metrovile-III, NED University, Karachi University, Maimar Complex and Al-Asif Square.

With a population of 497,268, it had 251,489 (139,480 male and 112,009 female) registered voters.

There were in all 18 candidates in the run for the NA-253 but the main fight was expected between Prof Muhammad Fahimuddin of MQM and Asadullah Bhutto of MMA. The NA-253 has two PA seats i.e. PS-118 and PS-119.