Ratan Malik, a teacher in Lahore Grammar school, said: “I am here to vote because of the rise in insecurity and terror attacks. Benazir’s killing was the nail in the coffin.”

Opinion polls, conducted by international pollsters, have indicated that the PPP and Nawaz Sharif’s PML (N) will emerge winners, that Musharraf’s popularity is at an all-time low. But Musharraf has rubbished these polls and the caretaker government has banned exit polls.

Trends give Oppn a reason to smile

• Benazir’s PPP leading in Sindh

• Sharif’s PML-N ahead in Punjab

• MQM doing well in Karachi

• Musharraf confidante Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed of PML-Q trailing in Rawalpindi

• Polls to elect 272 members of National Assembly, 728 members of provincial assemblies

•n 60 seats in NA reserved for women, 10 for minorities