New Delhi: Pakistan witnessed a violent start to the general elections on Monday as a PML-N candidate was shot dead in Lahore while a blast hit a polling booth in Swat Valley, even before the voting began.
Polling has not been smooth. Four people dead so far and more than 40 injured in scattered incidents of violence as Pakistan's election got underway on Monday.
As a result, balloting was suspended in a number of places including in Sindh, Punjab and the Frontier province.
Election observers claimed at least 30 per cent had voted with Lahore and Karachi in the lead but polling stations in Peshawar and other parts of the turbulent Northwest Frontier reported poor turnout.
In the Bajaur agency there was a bomb blast at a polling station and in Punjab the killing of a PML-N candidate led to suspension of polling.
PML-N candidate Chaudhry Asif Ashraf, who was contesting elections for the Punjab Provincial Assembly, was shot by unidentified gunmen early in the morning. He was rushed to a local hospital where he died minutes later.
Nine other PML-N workers were injured in the attack. The killing of Ashraf sparked tension in many parts of Lahore as Pakistanis started coming out to vote.
PTI quoted the police as saying that the incident was the result of old enmity.
However, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of Pakistan Justice Qazi Muhammad Faruque has said that polling is going on satisfactory.
Faruque further said that a few minor incidents of ghost polling stations could take place, as the election was a major event.
He appealed to the electronic media to refrain from highlighting the incidents of violence taking place during the polling.
Security forces in the Swat Valley have been attacked. The attack came hours after militants blew up a polling station in the troubled area in northwestern Pakistan early on Monday morning.
The southern province of Balochistan was rocked by a series of blasts hours before the polls began. There are also reports of sporadic violence in Lahore and Quetta.
Voting commenced in the violence-hit nation in the much-awaited general election early on Monday. Very low turnout was reported at the polling booths in the early hours.
As voting began at 8 am local time (8.30 am IST), unknown armed men snatched ballot papers from Badin polling station in Hyderabad. Three people have been arrested in Lahore for casting bogus votes. Media has also been stopped at Islamabad's polling stations.
Polling was stopped at a station in Shikarpur, in Sindh, Election Commission staff said. Polling has also been put off in the north-western Parachinar region in Kurram tribal agency, where 49 people were killed in a suicide attack on the last day of polling on Saturday.
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On Sunday, an electoral official was also shot dead by a policeman in Thatta, in Sindh. The policeman, who was escorting him, also wounded five others when he opened fire in a bus.
Officials say they did not know why the policeman started shooting and put it down to a psychological problem. The victim was travelling with polling materials.
Over 81 million voters are eligible to take part in the polling, but most are desisting for fears of suicide attacks. The balloting will end at 5 PM (1730 hours IST) and the first results are expected on Monday night.
The Pakistan government has deployed 81,000 troops and nearly 400,000 police personnel for 64,000 polling booths. A third of the polling stations have been declared "sensitive".
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