PESHAWAR, Aug 22: An international inter-governmental body entrusted with organizing polls for the Afghan refugees in Pakistan and Iran expresses concern over security.
However, it is confident that Pakistani security forces would extend cooperation in ensuring security in refugee camps during the first-ever Afghanistan elections due in October.
"Certainly, we do have concerns and we take it extremely seriously. We have our own security team and we are in close touch with Pakistani security services including the police and the army.
Assuming threats we are taking all measures," Richard Danziger, regional representative of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said at an informal news briefing at its offices here on Saturday.
The IOM - of which Pakistan is a member along with Afghanistan and Iran - has been mandated by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Afghanistan (UNAMA) and Joint Electoral Management Body (JEMB) to organize the refugee part of Afghan elections.
It has previously helped organize elections in East Timore, Bosnia and Kosovo. Mr Danziger acknowledged the 'huge challenge' in organizing the elections but said he was confident that they would be able to achieve their objective within the stipulated time.
He said that a core team of elections expert had been formed, but hastened to add that a lot of work remained to be done. He said that the IOM had set up its regional headquarters in Islamabad with regional offices in Peshawar, Quetta and Tehran to facilitate voters enrolment, educating voters and ensure smooth and transparent elections.
He said that 600 teams would be formed to mobilize community that would include both men and women on parity basis reaching out to the Afghan refugees directly as well as through the media.
In the NWFP alone, the number of Afghan voters could come to somewhere around 800,000, he informed. The IOM regional representative said that over 1000 polling stations would be set up in areas of concentration of Afghan refugees with separate booths for men and women.
He said that the IOM expected to get full cooperation from the Pakistani authorities in ensuring smooth and transparent elections. He, however, emphasized that the entire election process would be an independent activity.
"It is an Afghan process but it is happening in a neighbouring country," he remarked. "These lines are clear to all and we are not encountering any problems," he said.
He clarified that registration of refugees would be done solely for the purpose of elections and the data would not be used for census. "Registration has nothing to do with census," he said.
Replying a question, Mr Danziger said the refugee voters would be required to either furnish their refugee identity cards or asked to answer a few questions to establish their Afghan identity.
