Senators and members of the National and Provincial Assemblies of Pakistan are cast their votes in the presidential elections on Saturday, the state-run PTV channel reported.

The polling started at 10 AM (0500 GMT) and will continue till 3 PM (1000 GMT) at the National Assembly hall and provincial assemblies in Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta.

A total of 34 members of Provincial Assembly in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) have arrived to cast their votes for the presidential elections, and 38 parliamentarians have taken part in the polling in Balochistan assembly.

The security is tight in the capital Islamabad and four provincial capitals with deployment of heavy police force outside the assemblies buildings.

Around 200 legislators of the All Parties Democratic Movement, an alliance of the main opposition parties in Pakistan, have resigned from the National and Provincial assemblies, aiming at protesting President Pervez Musharraf's re-election.

A major opposition party People's Party (PPP), led by former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, stayed out of the resignation.

However, PPP decided to abstain from the voting for the presidential elections on Saturday in the National and Provincial assemblies.

The Supreme Court on Friday issued a notice on the petitions filed by two presidential candidates, retired judge Wajihuddin Ahmed and Makhdoom Mohammad Amin Faheem from PPP. The notice said that the presidential elections would be held per schedule while the election commission was not allowed to issue the final notification of the election results before a final verdict was given. The Supreme Court will resume hearing the petitions on October 17.

(Xinhua News Agency October 6, 2007)