At Dawn every morning, Hamesh Gul squats under an arcade in a bus station in Rawalpindi, unpacks laces, awls and thread and waits for customers to present their shoes. By the time he finishes at around midnight, he will have earned 100-150 rupees (about $2-3). This grinding routine has made Mr Gul bitter and inert. He is illiterate; his children, who live in another province, are also likely to be because they do not go to school. Mr Gul has never voted and does not much care that last October's military coup has suspended his right to do so. "Why should I care who's in power?" he asks. "My life is polishing people's boots."
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