MULTAN, Feb 7: A number of illiterate or low-educated employees of the City District Government of Multan will perform as assistant presiding officers and polling officers in the Feb 18 elections, Dawn has learnt.

Sohnay Khan works as a welder in the Agriculture Engineering Workshop on Old Shujabad Road. Come Feb 18 and he will be working as assistant presiding officer at MC Girls’ Primary School at Basti Jangla, Multan.

Sohnay Khan, who has never been to school, says that he has been informed by the authorities that on the elections day he will ink thumbs of voters.

Sohnay Khan is not much worried about his new assignment because at the same polling station, 12 of the total of 14 members of polling staff are illiterate like him and they use their thumb impression to get their salary slips.

Sources told Dawn about 2,000 illiterate or low-educated employees of various departments, including Irrigation Workshop, Agriculture Mechanism Research Institute and Water Management departments, have been appointed as polling staff.

They added 80 employees of the Agriculture Engineering Workshop had been appointed for election duty, and of them only five people were matriculate or above.

On Dec 18, Seraiki Youth Force Chairman Ashiq Muhammad Mughal submitted an application to Multan Assistant Returning Officer Farrukh Fareed that illiterate staffers of Agriculture Engineering Workshop were appointed as polling officials at Railway Industrial Women’s Training Centre.

On Jan 30, the assistant returning officer cancelled the duty of nine staffers while three other were kept as reserved staff as they were not illiterate and only two staffers were asked to perform their duty.

An official of Pattan, a non-government organisation, said that Election Commission rules stated an assistant presiding officer could not perform as president officer in case of his absence and an employee of grade 16 can be presiding officer.

He said that in case of appointing uneducated assistant presiding officers, the smooth conduct of polling would not be possible because the duty of assistant presiding officer were to issue ballet papers, verify them and sign on them besides jotting down the information about the voter on the ballet paper.

At the end of polling, a presiding officer will be responsible to prepare a report regarding the ballet paper’s books.

He said in case of absence of presiding officer, one of the reserved presiding officers can act as a presiding officer.

He said a polling officer would help an assistant presiding officer and would call the name of voter from voters’ lists while he would mark the thumb of a voter with ink.

He said uneducated employees were appointed as polling staff due to the policy of Election Commission that states that employees of grade seven could perform election duty . He said many illiterate or low-educated staffers were in grade seven after getting promotions.

District Nazim Mian Faisal Mukhtar was not available for his comments.