Lahore: The country's poorest people doubt the super-rich political leaders vying for votes in Monday's election see them as even human, so see little chance of change whoever comes to power.
Filthy, barefoot children scurry among heaps of rubbish collected by scavengers in a squalid camp on the outskirts of the eastern city of Lahore.
Just like their parents, none of the children has ever been to school and all but the youngest have to help to scrape a living recycling paper and plastic. Families sleep on the floor in makeshift tents. There is no running water and no healthcare.
Just a few miles away, in a white-washed villa surrounded by neatly clipped lawns and set among orange groves, multi-millionaire former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, on election eve, was still sleeping, his aides said.
The leaders of the other two main parties, the husband of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and the leader of the party that backs President Pervez Musharraf were also at home in luxurious Lahore villas on a day when campaigning is banned ahead of the polls.
"We are not expecting any change in our life whoever comes to power," said Khoushi Mohammad. "We are Pakistanis, but they don't even consider us to be human beings."
Moving from place to place to eke out a living from the debris of others, Mohammad said he was not registered to vote in the election anyway. All but one of the men and women crowding around, said they did not have a vote either.
The election had brought some good though. Some of the men said they had been paid by political parties to swell the numbers at political rallies and a large flag from Bhutto's party had been sown onto a tent awning.
"They just use us for their political interests," said Gafoor. "They take us to their different rallies to make a show, that's it."
