All the newspapers in Pakistan observed that the first phase of elections conducted in Kashmir by India was marked by a low turnout and that the Indian security forces forced the Kashmiris to vote. Dawn mentioned (“Elections in Valley witness low turnout”, 17 September 2002) the Indian Election Commission as saying “While polling was higher in Poonch and Rajouri districts of Jammu region, it was markedly lower in the Valley's Kupwara and Baramulla districts”. The News reporting from “held Srinagar” (“Violence, forced voting mar held Kashmir polls”, 17 September 2002) observed that “many people declined to vote, giving their support rather to a poll boycott declared by All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC). However, Kashmiri villagers accused army soldiers of storming into their homes and beating them to force a large turnout, an accusation that also coloured the last election in 1996”.

  Syed Salahuddin, the Chairman of Muttahida Jihad Council was quoted (“Jihad Council praises Kashmiris for boycott”, Dawn, 17 September 2002) as saying, “a complete strike was observed and the polling stations remained deserted despite strong pressure by the Indian army and held Kashmir's puppet administration…. The boycott is a referendum against India. Now the international community and the world powers must accept the Kashmiris' decision and exert pressure on India to accede to their basic right".

  The English media in Pakistan selectively quoted the international print and electronic media to support their thesis. The Nation in its editorial (“Free polls at gun point”, 18 September 2002) wrote that “International media like the BBC and CNN, reporting the much publicized elections to the puppet state assembly in Held Kashmir, gave an emphatic lie to the Indian claim that the voter turnout in the first phase last Monday was 44 percent. The CNN correspondent, who spent five hours at a polling booth, saw no one coming forward to cast his vote, and the BBC termed the overall turnout as "extremely low". Even the returning officers have been quoted as admitting to a thin response.

  The Pakistani media criticized the US for not calling the elections in Kashmir a sham. The Nation in its editorial (“Kashmir elections in US eyes”, 19 September 2002) voiced its frustration. “It would come as a shock to those who have remained stubborn in their belief, despite enough dissuading evidence, that our rediscovered friendship with the US would help us protect our vital national interests, which New Delhi is bent upon striking at. A senior State Department official finds the first phase of Held Kashmir polls free and fair… Bush Administration has been at pains to make the electoral charade a success. First it tried to persuade the APHC not to boycott and now that the farce has begun, it is telling the world that everything is hunky-dory with the Kashmiris who have opted for India in a free vote. Neither their basic right to decide their future enshrined in UN resolutions nor the vital interests of Pakistan have any value in US eyes when measured against Indian friendship, which it perceives as fundamental to its strategic interests”.

  Daily Times, commenting on the interim report released by Coalition of Civil Society on the elections in Kashmir, wrote in its editorial (“Thumbs down for Kashmir polls”, 21 September 2002), “We are therefore constrained to say that polls conducted in this manner do not offer a solution. They are only going to exacerbate the problem. Past polls conducted by New Delhi were always rigged. Something more sincerely calibrated than that beaten track is needed to move forward.”

  According to Pervaiz Iqbal Cheema, “Almost all major international media networks seem to have reported that the voting turn out was dismally low. In some areas it was less than 2%…Many Kashmiris were dragged out of their homes and forced to cast votes. The soldiers actually threatened to check the fingers in the evening in order to ascertain whether or not the people have gone to vote and threatened to cut their fingers if there were no marks of indelible ink…The third aspect that deserves some comments deals with two aspects of pre-poll rigging; the electoral rolls and the identity cards. It has been frequently reported that the applications for the identity cards (ID) of those who are not supportive of the National Conference are not given due considerations”.

  On the same issue, former Foreign Secretary of Pakistan, Najamuddin A Shaikh observed (“The Kashmir Elections”, Daily Times, 22 September 2002), “The Indian government knows full well that the people of Occupied Kashmir are totally alienated. Even a genuine high turnout would not have meant that this alienation had dissipated. This could have come if there had been a genuine effort at dialogue with the APHC. This could have come, perhaps, if the political prisoners had been released and if President’s rule had been imposed. This could have come if the people were given to understand that the elections would be a step towards allowing them to determine their destiny rather than an exercise in allowing their representatives to participate in a limited way in the administration of the state under the supervision of a coercive state apparatus”.