Azam Karim squints his eyes, concentrating as he attempts to fit the

Azam Karim squints his eyes, concentrating as he attempts to fit the sticker he has just printed onto a bright green ribbon badge. His work is cut out for him, dozens of empty badges clutter his desk, and a pile of printed stickers sits next to them.

Business is doing well for Karim’s dusty small print shop in Brooklyn’s Coney Island Avenue as competing groups supporting rival Pakistani political parties try to influence elections in Pakistan, printing badges, fliers, and posters to show their support, and to seek it from the community.

The parties have representatives in New York City and across the country. Some are headquartered in different parts of the city, but all have a strong following in “Little Pakistan” in Flatbush, where the Pakistani community has more than doubled in the past 10 years, making it the fastest growing Pakistani enclave in New York.

Here, Coney Island Avenue is lined with Pakistani shops: grocery stores, car mechanics, and restaurants. Advertisements and notices in curving Urdu letters decorate windows of shops, and women in brightly colored shalwar kameez pushing strollers walk their children to school. Most Flatbush Pakistanis are immigrants themselves, but even the children of immigrants, American born, and in their teens and 20s, switch fluently between Urdu, Punjabi, and English.

Though it seems fairly certain that despite a court challenge overseas Pakistanis will not be able to vote in the upcoming elections, participation in the electoral process provides an important link to home for many. Their support takes on different forms, from handing out pamphlets, to organizing fundraising dinners, and even holding large political rallies.

“We cannot abandon them just because we are here,” says Amjad Nawaz, a supporter of Imran Khan, the cricket-player turned politician who is a contender in this year’s elections. “We have to do anything we can for Pakistan.”

Elections will be held May 11, and current President Asif Ali Zardari will become the first democratically-elected president in Pakistan’s brief history to complete a first term. But most Pakistanis in Brooklyn are unhappy with Zardari, as the country’s problems have seemingly worsened.

The past four years have brought an increase in terrorism and unemployment, power outages have plagued the country, and crime in cities has increased dramatically. Thousands have fled the country because of these conditions.

The badge Karim works on now displays the logo of Nawaz Sharif, a veteran politician who is also a contender in May’s elections. It is printed for Mian Fayyaz, a community leader for Sharif’s party in New York. Fayyaz will distribute them to local Pakistanis as a part of an ongoing fundraising campaign. In November, such an effort funded 10,000 bumper stickers, displaying a large image of Sharif and his party’s logo.

Amjad Nawaz, a store owner who was a Sharif supporter for 20 years, says that false promises forced him to realign his loyalty.

“We were do or die for Nawaz Sharif,” he says, “we didn’t realize that he was doing nothing for Pakistan, we don’t want to be so in love with any politician.”

Now Nawaz helps to raise funds for Khan’s party to support his campaign in Pakistan. Recently, the group raised $9,000 to fund a van equipped with loudspeakers and TVs to campaign for Khan making daily rounds through rural villages.

“But Imran Khan will do something, I know it, he’s someone we can really believe in to make a positive change,” says Nawaz, who visits Pakistan “every couple of years.”

Among overseas Pakistanis, Khan has the largest following. A rally last year in Queens attracted over 1,200 of his supporters, mostly youth.

Yasir Ali, a businessman and coordinator for Khan’s party in New York, says the newcomer is a fresh face; he has never held office, unlike Sharif, who served as prime minister for three years until his government was overthrown in a military coup in 1999, and Zardari, who will be running for re-election.

For Nawaz, the switch between parties has created some tension. He was once a colleague of Fayyaz, but now competes with him for supporters at every major Pakistani event, just as his counterparts do in Pakistan.

But in New York, Khan’s party is more active than any other. At the annual Pakistan Day Parade last year, the group gained hundreds of supporters who signed up to become members by donating $10 a month to his campaign. Worldwide, Khan’s party has 180,000 paying members from large Pakistani communities in England, Australia, and across the United States.

In Karim’s shop, Ink Top Graphics, stickers of two parties’ logos print on the same page. “I don’t believe in any of them,” says Karim, who came to the U.S. when he was a teenager. “They’re all liars, all there to benefit only themselves, nothing will happen.”

Asghar Chaudhry, an accountant who has lived in Flatbush for almost 30 years, agrees.

“I told everyone there, I will come back to my country if it’s like it was 30 years ago,” said Chaudhry, “but it can’t be, no election is going to change anything.”

Sehar Mughal Voices of NY