Nation in referendum on presidential term

Millions of Pakistanis went to the polls on Tuesday to cast their votes in a referendum to decide whether or not to extend President Pervez Musharraf's term of office for five years from October, when parliamentary elections are due to be held. It is not yet known how many people are likely to vote for Musharraf, who seized power in October 1999, and has promised social, political and economic reforms, besides continuing a crackdown on hardline Islamic militant groups in the wake of the 11 September events. The referendum has had mixed response from his supporters and critics. Two main political parties have described it as unconstitutional. But many Pakistanis support Musharraf, saying that he is not corrupt and that he really wants to reform this poor Islamic state. "I think he is doing a good job, unlike the dirt we used to have in the past," Syed Mohammad Anas, a resident of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, told IRIN outside a polling station. "In the last 50 years we were looking for a good leader, whether he was from the military or a civilian," added Anas, the director of a teacher training institute. The referendum asks the people to vote yes if they want a continuation of the local government system; restoration of democracy; sustainability and continuation of reforms; and elimination of sectarianism and extremism. A government official told IRIN there were more than 60 million eligible voters out of a population of 145 million for whom the authorities had set up more than 87,000 polling stations across the country. The official results are set to be announced on Wednesday. Musharraf, Pakistan's fourth military ruler since independence from Britain in 1947, ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 1999 after he was dismissed as army chief of staff. His critics say that he has manipulated official resources to ensure his victory in the referendum, including telling government employees to vote in his favour. However, Malik Aziz, a government employee, denied that he had received any such instruction. "I have come on my own. Nobody forced me to cast my vote," he insisted. But at a women's polling station in a fashionable Islamabad neighbourhood, a bus had brought all the teachers of the Islamabad College of Girls to the venue. Some of them said they had not been compelled to come, but one said she had. "No comment", she said, when asked to further explain her presence. Musharraf says the referendum will ensure that he is able to carry out reforms as a president, and the holding of elections for the national and provincial assemblies in October, under a deadline given issued by the Supreme Court of Pakistan, which earlier validated his military takeover.