The first vote of my life will definitely be the most memorable.
I voted for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf. Simply because I admire Imran Khan's personality. He is the change I want to see in my country. Everyone deserves a chance at proving themselves. People doubt whether Imran Khan is competent enough, he might not be able to deliver. They have a point but I know for certain that the other parties are DEFINITELY offering empty promises. Is history not enough to teach us a lesson?
Anyway the experience was indescribable. Let me start from the beginning. I woke up at 12 PM in a panic. I dreamt that I was too late in reaching the polling station and had missed my opportunity. As soon as I woke up I dashed to my parents room and asked them what time were we going to go and vote. Turned out my father had already returned from there without voting because the line was too long. My mom said we'll go at 3PM. I urged them to leave as soon as possible. Our family and friends who called recounted that it took them 2 hours or more. Finally my parents caved to my requests and we left our house at 1PM. Before leaving we made sure to grab some water bottles and caps thanks to some Tweeples who had tweeted these important reminders. We arrived at the polling station in no time. It was a government health institute in the adjoining neighbourhood.
The long lines of people only made me glad to see the Pakistanis finally waking up and taking a step towards democracy. I joined the end of the line in high spirits. After waiting a few minutes we met with two women who had already voted. They looked at our voter's slips and told us to join the other line which lead to our polling booth. We thanked them and proceeded to the queue. It was a mad house at that side of the station. There was one entrance for voters (men AND women) which served as an exit as well. People were pushing from the back of the line and a few arguments broke out between voters of different political views and the voters and the police. The "Typical Pakistani behaviour" taunts were heard.
Thankfully, we didn't have to wait there long and were ushered inside. We hurried on upstairs and joined another line. After waiting for an hour, passing the time by talking to the other women (majority were PTI supporters), my mom spotted her friend who was the coincidentally polling officer. She went ahead to get our vote verified but was peeved to discover we had been wasting our time at the wrong booth. This time we made sure to ask a few responsible looking people before entering the room.
To our relief there were only 5-6 women at the actual booth but it didn't get any easier. The government school teachers were not used to dealing with such a large turn out. Their actions were sluggish and lazy. One woman had a spoonful of Biryani in one hand and a pen in the other. She was constantly getting up to either place her lunch box in a secure place or get more ballot papers. When she stood up to go and drink water everyone protested and offered her their own bottles.
After putting my thumb imprint, I received my ballot papers. There were a lot of election s ymbols on that page. Camcorders, rabbits, tents, bottles and etc. I stamped on the Bat, waited for it to dry and then fold and put it in the boxes.
We came out of the building happy with ourselves and went to celebrate with Gloria Jean's Coffee where we shared our voting experiences.
PTI won the seat from my constituency (NA-126) and they've formed a strong opposition against PML-N. So my tale has a happy ending after all. Voting is one of the basic rights of a citizen and I'm glad I was able to fulfill my duty as a Pakistani.
Pakistan Zindabad!
The long lines of people only made me glad to see the Pakistanis finally waking up and taking a step towards democracy. I joined the end of the line in high spirits. After waiting a few minutes we met with two women who had already voted. They looked at our voter's slips and told us to join the other line which lead to our polling booth. We thanked them and proceeded to the queue. It was a mad house at that side of the station. There was one entrance for voters (men AND women) which served as an exit as well. People were pushing from the back of the line and a few arguments broke out between voters of different political views and the voters and the police. The "Typical Pakistani behaviour" taunts were heard.
Thankfully, we didn't have to wait there long and were ushered inside. We hurried on upstairs and joined another line. After waiting for an hour, passing the time by talking to the other women (majority were PTI supporters), my mom spotted her friend who was the coincidentally polling officer. She went ahead to get our vote verified but was peeved to discover we had been wasting our time at the wrong booth. This time we made sure to ask a few responsible looking people before entering the room.
To our relief there were only 5-6 women at the actual booth but it didn't get any easier. The government school teachers were not used to dealing with such a large turn out. Their actions were sluggish and lazy. One woman had a spoonful of Biryani in one hand and a pen in the other. She was constantly getting up to either place her lunch box in a secure place or get more ballot papers. When she stood up to go and drink water everyone protested and offered her their own bottles.
After putting my thumb imprint, I received my ballot papers. There were a lot of election s ymbols on that page. Camcorders, rabbits, tents, bottles and etc. I stamped on the Bat, waited for it to dry and then fold and put it in the boxes.
We came out of the building happy with ourselves and went to celebrate with Gloria Jean's Coffee where we shared our voting experiences.
PTI won the seat from my constituency (NA-126) and they've formed a strong opposition against PML-N. So my tale has a happy ending after all. Voting is one of the basic rights of a citizen and I'm glad I was able to fulfill my duty as a Pakistani.
Pakistan Zindabad!
