Islamabad: Four persons were killed in poll-related violence on October 10 in Pakistan as the country went for its first Parliamentary elections ostensibly meant to return power to civilians after three years of military rule of General Pervez Musharraf.

Violence took place in Sindh and Punjab when rival groups clashed with each other and opened fire killing four persons and injuring several others, reports reaching Islamabad said.

While there was no official estimate of polling percentage, political parties said the turnout was low to moderate with some booths in Islamabad registering a high turnout.

Counting of ballots was taken up after polling closed at 17:30 hours (IST) and the trends were expected later on October 10 night.

This is the first time that two prominent leaders, Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto, are not contesting the elections.

While Sharif, who is in exile in Saudi Arabia, withdrew his nomination, Bhutto has been barred from contesting but her party was in race.

Alongwith elections to the 342-member National Assembly, polling was also held for the four provincial Assemblies of Punjab, Sindh, North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Baluchistan.

Musharraf, who grabbed power overthrowing Sharif's government in October 1999, said he would transfer all executive powers to the party which wins the elections and a new civil administration would be in place by the first week of November.

PTI