Army, govt bodies offer services to ECP for fair polls

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Army and the federal and provincial institutions have offered their services to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for the holding of free, fair and transparent elections.

A high-level meeting at the Election Commission Secretariat was held here on Wednesday to thrash out a security plan for the elections.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice (retd) Fakhruddin G Ebrahim chaired the forum, attended by the defence, interior and Safron secretaries, chief secretaries of the four provinces, home secretaries, secretary Establishment Division, DG Rangers and IGP Islamabad.

It was learnt that representatives of the provinces, including Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, as well as Fata said they were ready to ensure security during the general elections. As a major part of the security strategy, committees would be formed under the respective district returning officers to play a lead role in security-related matters.

The chief election commissioner said that they wanted the deployment of the army at all polling stations and they should remain there until the results of the respective constituencies were announced to stem chances of any kind of irregularity.

The meeting in principle agreed to put a ban on all kinds of election rallies, processions and public gatherings, besides banning issuance of all kinds of arm licences till the general elections, said the ECP Secretary Ishtiak Ahmad Khan while briefing media persons after the meeting. He noted the on-going process of delimitation would be completed well within time.

Meanwhile, talking to journalists, Secretary Defence Asif Yasin said it had not happened in the past that military personnel were deployed at all polling stations on polling day, but added that his ministry would extend every possible help to the Election Commission in this regard.

However, an insider told The News that during the meeting, the secretary defence said it would be impossible to spare military personnel for deployment at all 80,000 polling stations. Almost 0.3 million personnel are required to be deployed at polling stations throughout Pakistan, which in the given situation, particularly on the western border and elsewhere, could not be spared for election duty. But deployments would be made at sensitive polling stations.

Asif Yasin said the provincial committee headed by chief secretaries would finalise security plans for the respective provinces in the light of recommendations submitted to them by district election security committees (DESCs). The provinces, he pointed out, would chalk out security plans that would give a clear idea as to how many personnel from the military, rangers, police and the Frontier Constabulary would be needed to be deployed at sensitive polling stations in each province.

A proposal was also discussed in the meeting to install CCTV cameras at all sensitive polling stations and the government of Punjab had already agreed to install the devices at 4,000 polling stations.

After the 18th constitutional amendment, the secretary ECP noted the issuance of arms licences was the subject of provincial governments. Still, the Ministry of Interior was issuing arms licences all over Pakistan. On the recommendation of the commission, the Ministry of Interior and provincial chief secretaries had agreed to put a ban on arms licences with immediate effect.

However, he pointed out that only personal security guards of the candidates contesting election would be allowed to keep arms but it also required proper security clearance from provincial governments. Responding to a query, he replied that the contesting candidates could keep up to five personal security guards.

Ishtiak said there was a consensus in the meeting that all the rallies, processions, public gatherings for election campaigns would be restricted to the boundaries of houses.

The ECP also put a ban on the display of weapons during election campaigns and polling day. Around 500 monitoring teams would be set up for monitoring the election campaigns and note down the violation of election laws.

He said the Ministry of Safron would restrict the movement of Afghan refugees residing in Pakistan a couple of weeks before the general elections.

To a question, he said the process of electoral reforms was started three years ago and 60 percent recommendations were incorporated in the existing electoral laws.

Posted in: Top Story