At least seven police recruits were killed and 30 injured tonight when their bus overturned near the southern Pakistani city of Hyderabad, police said.
The bus veered out of control and turned over at a sharp corner while travelling in a convoy with three other buses to Hyderabad, 180 km northeast of the port city of Karachi.
A senior police official in Hyderabad said the victims were police trainees returning to base after being called up for duty in yesterday's general election.
"The trainees had been commandeered because of the shortage of police officers to monitor the voting," he said.
The election formally marks the end of military rule in the country of 140 million people, three years after President Pervez Musharraf took power in a bloodless coup.