Polling is under way across Pakistan in landmark national and provincial elections. Polls will close at 5:00 pm local time allowing an electorate of more than 86 million to vote for the 342-member national assembly and four provincial assemblies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Sindh and Baluchistan. The vote marks Pakistan's first transition from one civilian government to another in its 66-year history.

But sporadic violence linked to the election has claimed a number of lives. Around two hours after polling started, a bomb attack was reported in Karachi, apparently targeting an ANP candidate outside the party's political office. Police said at least 12 people were killed and more than 40 others injured in the attack.

Seven people were injured outside a polling station in the north-western city of Peshawar when a bomb went off attached to a motorcycle. Police said a suicide bomber blew himself up after police prevented him from entering another polling station in Peshawar. In another incident, a clash between two groups at a polling station in Chaman on the border with Afghanistan left least three people dead and several others hurt. An explosion was also reported in Quetta in the south-west. At least four people were injured in a blast in Mardan in the north-west.

More than 600,000 security personnel have been deployed nationwide at polling stations amid warnings from the Taliban to voters to stay away. Around half the estimated 70,000 polling stations have been declared at risk of attack, many of them in insurgency-torn parts of Baluchistan and the north-west. The election commission says turnout at polling booths was around 30 per cent by midday and is expected to rise to 60 per cent before the polls close. Provisional results are expected to come in by early tomorrow.