Pakistan witnessed its 11th General Elections on July 25,2018. Polling began at 8:00 AM and had concluded without any break at 6:00 PM across the country’s 85,307 polling stations of which 17,007 had been declared highly sensitive. A total 12,750 candidates were vying for a total of 849 seats of national and provincial assemblies.

Today, I first time visited a polling station as I went there for casting my vote. My constituency was NA-127/PP-148 and the polling station was “Islamia Girls High School”. I was very excited because it was the first experience of my life.
It was raining heavily in the morning. I, with my family, went there at 2:00 PM. On my way to the polling station I saw different people who were supporting different political parties. There were many posters and banners of different parties. There was a big crowd in streets.
Children were looking very excited and happy. Some kids were also in white and green clothes wearing different party badges.
When I reached outside the polling station I saw a crowd of people who were getting information regarding their vote. I went to a stall and showed them my ID card then they gave me a slip mentioning some important information regarding mt vote.
At the main entrance of polling station three policemen were standing for checking. Inside the polling station there was hustle and bustle of peoples. There were different polling booths having different code numbers. My polling booth code was 220. There was a big line of women who were waiting outside the polling booth for their turn to cast vote. I also stood in the queue. There were separate polling booth for male and female. There was a desk at the center of courtyard of polling station where the presiding officers were sitting to guide the people.

Meanwhile, I saw army personnel standing outside and inside of polling booth for the security purpose. Some people were coming with their families and some were alone. The environment was very calm and peaceful. No fight or exchange of arguments between different party supporters was seen there. Inside the polling booth there was a bunch of staff. They had a file in which the names of people of that constituency were present who were eligible for vote. There were separate booths where people were casting vote in a privacy.

Two big boxes of green and white colors were present in the polling booth. Green box was for National Assembly vote and white box was for Provincial Punjab Assembly vote. When I reached to the table a boy asked my CNIC he wrote my CNIC number and other information on the file which he had. After that he gave me two papers of green and white color. Green paper was for NA and white paper was for PP. On both the papers there were symbols and names of the candidates who were contesting for NA and PP seats. I took the papers and went to that separate place and put stamp in front of the picture to which I was casting the vote then I folded the papers and put them in relevant boxes and came out to polling booth. After casting the vote I came back to home.

My first experience of casting vote was very good. I performed my national duty with loyalty. Casting vote is our national duty and we all should perform this responsibility. We should also pray to Allah for the betterment and prosperity of our beloved country Pakistan.