Pakistan's army is on alert ahead of elections tomorrow and more than 200,000 police, paramilitaries and anti-terrorist commandos will be deployed at polling stations, officials said yesterday as Pakistani political parties wound up a month-long campaign.

Hopes as well as doubts about the contours of future setup abound as the only nuclear Islamic state, home to 145 million people, prepared to go to the polls.

Military ruler President General Pervez Musharraf is holding promise of a sustainable democratic order while critics foresee a continuation of military ascendancy behind a democratic facade.

Some 30 of the country's 119 districts have been declared sensitive due to recent terrorist attacks, violence between the members of rival sects, or bitter rivalry between contestants from more than 60 political parties, they said.

"The army will be on call in each sensitive district," an interior ministry official said. "They will be ready to attend to any emergency, while police and paramilitary soldiers will be deployed at polling stations for security on the polling day."

Some 64,475 polling stations across Pakistan will open from 8am to 5pm on Thursday for the first parliamentary elections since a military coup three years ago.

Around 65,000 police will oversee security in the country's largest and most populous province of Punjab, where 40 million people are eligible to cast ballots, police spokesman Malik Muneer said.

Another 150,000 volunteers and civil defence workers will also be on duty and mobile police and paramilitary squads in armoured carriers will patrol the provincial capital Lahore.

In Karachi, the teeming commercial port city where two suicide bomb attacks killed 14 people, including 11 French naval engineers in May and 12 people outside the U.S. consulate in June, security forces are on high alert.

"The two-thirds of Karachi has been declared sensitive," said the city's police chief Tariq Jamil.

A 10,000-strong police force and another 10,000 paramilitary Rangers will be on guard in the city, and army troops can be called "on a short notice." "We have summoned additional forces including anti-terrorist squads and commandos," Jamil said.

Patrolling was intensified yesterday and cars were being checked for arms and explosives. In all of southern Sindh province, 50,000 police and 12,000 paramilitary Rangers will be deployed.

Helicopters will fly over 827 "sensitive" polling stations in the tribal-dominated North-West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan, where some 35,000 police and 15,000 paramilitary Frontier Constabulary troops will be on duty.

In the south-western Balochistan province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, 28,000 police and paramilitaries will be deployed.

More than 7,000 candidates are in the run for 342 seats in the federal parliament and 728 seats in the four provincial legislatures.

The campaign, which officially ended last midnight for a 24-hour pre-poll blackout, has been peaceful so far.

Musharraf introduced major changes to constitution in August, strengthening the presidency and giving the armed forces a first-time formal role in governance through the national security council.

He contends that the amendments, one of which empowers president to dismiss elected parliament, provide a framework that would prevent relapse into political chaos witnessed in the last decade and help foster a wholesome democratic culture.

Former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, both barred from politics, will be watching polling from exile, hoping their parties would win and pave the way for their return home.

At Rawalpindi, Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz group) leaders played before a crowd of 4,000 recordings of Sharif's speeches during his two stints as prime minister.

Sharif, exiled to Saudi Arabia in December 2000 along with his entire family for a decade under a deal, apparently does not seem to have the freedom that Benazir has to beam speeches or interviews.

PPPP and PML-N, which have overcome their mutually destructive rivalry in the past, face a formidable challenge with the pro-Musharraf PML-QA, a party dominated by friends-turned-foes of Sharif, tipped a front runner along with PPP.

Led by former Punjab governor Mian Mohammed Azhar, the PML-QA, multi-party National Alliance, including former president Farooq Leghari's Millat Party and Sindh Democratic Alliance make up the broader pro-government camp.

Also in the foray are Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal composed of six main religious parties with rallying call of Islamic system and anti-U.S. rhetoric.

Former cricket hero Imran's Tehrik-e-Insaaf is vying to enter parliament after its first failed electoral bid in 1997 elections.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement with a known solid vote-bank in Karachi and other urban centres of Sindh and Awami National Party based in northwestern region are other prominent runners.