The Oct. 10 nationwide vote is
designed to end three years of army rule and return the country to
civilian rule. But a slew of attacks linked to terrorist activity
have prompted authorities to put security forces on high alert to
avert any terrorist attacks or election-related violence.
"We don't want terrorism or violence spoiling our first
democratic vote in years," said Ghazmi Khan, a spokesman for
Pakistan's Election Commission
The army threw out the civilian government of Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif in 1999, suspended the constitution and jailed several
politicians. Sharif currently is in exile in Saudi Arabia, banished
from Pakistan for 10 years and accused of massive corruption and
attempting to undermine institutions like the judiciary and
Parliament.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan ordered army chief and President
Gen. Pervez Musharraf to hold elections within three years of the
takeover.
On Oct. 10 Pakistanis will vote for the National Assembly or
lower house of Parliament, which is the lawmaking body, as well as
four provincial legislatures and the Senate.
Police in riot gear and army rangers in fatigues will be on
patrol as Pakistanis pour into more than 64,000 polling stations
from the country's dusty northern provinces to the humid, southern
coast along the Arabian Sea.
Much of the massive security operation will focus here in
Karachi, where more than 4 million eligible voters are expected to
cast their ballots in a key political district home to the most
fiercely contested seats.
Police officials say 14,000 extra police officers will patrol the
streets, some with bomb-sniffing dogs, and new security cameras will
monitor select bazaars, parks, and crowded intersections in the days
leading up to the vote.
Similar security details will be deployed in the tribal North
West Frontier Province around the northern city of Peshawar and
Lahore to the west. Over 100,000 policemen and soldiers will watch
over election day voting in those two cities alone.
"We are working around the clock to have everything set up," said
Atta-ur Rehman, a senior election official in Karachi.
Election officials describe an even more daunting task: arranging
polling booths not used since 1997, when Sharif won office as prime
minister.
To accommodate voters in Karachi, some 3,500 polling stations
will be set up, which will include a total of more than 11,500
polling booths. They will be staffed by 120,000 volunteers, many of
them schoolteachers.
Equally mammoth will be the list of candidates voters can choose
from.
At least 634 candidates are vying for some 20 general
parliamentary seats from Karachi. The list includes many
conservative Islamic hard-liners, whose voices are prominent in this
city known for its ties to the Middle East.
But election day security concerns remain the dominant issue.
Violence is not uncommon in Pakistani politics, and it is certainly
rife in this southern port city.
Karachi, Pakistan's economic and commercial hub, has been plagued
by violence stemming from ethnic conflicts and sectarian strife that
have claimed 5,000 lives here in the last five years.
"There are some areas in the city which could be termed as
sensitive," said Sindh Home Secretary Brig. Mukhtar Ahmed.
In recent months, this crime-ridden city has been the site of
several attacks believed to be the work of terrorists, including the
kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel
Pearl and a suicide car bomb attack outside the Sheraton Hotel that
claimed the lives of 11 French engineers. A month later, an
explosives-packed vehicle slammed into the U.S. Consulate, killing
12 Pakistanis.
Tensions boiled over again last month after the execution-style
killing of seven Christian workers last month, the latest attack on
Christian and Western targets.
In the run-up to the elections, scattered reports of violence
have been reported between rival ethnic parties working to make
significant electoral gains against Musharraf's supporters in
parliament.
In one incident last month, supporters of the Muttahida Qaumi
Movement fired shots at the offices of Mahajir Qaumi Movement,
killing one person in Karachi.
But most of the violence has occurred in isolated events —
something the police say they can better handle.
Hoping to prevent any pre-election violence, police have been
making sweeps in trouble-prone areas. Police in Lahore said security
officials have rounded up thousands of people throughout Punjab
province in recent weeks.
But observers like Prof. Rasheed Patel, a well-known Urdu
columnist who writes for the daily Jang newspaper, said pre-election
violence has largely been subdued by a government law prohibiting
large-scale political rallies.
"Had there been traditional election rallies we would have seen
much of violence by now," he said.
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