PESHAWAR: Police authorities have decided to withdraw security guards from the houses of VIPs to perform duty on the polling day to provide security to people during the local government elections in the province.

Official sources said that 110,000 police personnel were needed for election duty but the department was short of the required manpower. Police department could arrange only 50 per cent of the required personnel for security duty on polling day, they added.

The department decided to withdraw security guards from the houses of VIPs to meet the shortage of personnel, official sources said. They said that owing to shortage of policewomen, lady health workers would perform duty of lady constables on the polling day. Those women health workers would be issued special identity cards for the purpose, they added.

It is pertinent to mention here that 2,837 of the total 10,855 polling stations have been declared as most sensitive in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

In Peshawar, hundreds of vehicles have been impounded for transportation of staff for election duty. The owners of the impounded vehicles would be paid on daily basis, traffic police officials said.

Lady health workers and employees of other departments will also perform security duty on polling day

Police spokesperson Riaz Ahmed told Dawn that they had sought support from the other line departments to provide their employees for security duty during the elections. The employees of other departments will wield sticks for security duty while security forces will remain standby to back police in case of any untoward incident.

Mr Ahmed said that eight personnel along with a head would be deployed at each of the most sensitive polling station. Six personnel with a head would be deployed at a sensitive and four personnel along with a head would be deployed at a normal polling station, he added.

The security staff, the spokesman said, would create security zones at 200 yards from the polling stations to check the vehicles and pedestrians. He said that police had to check both terrorism and clash among political workers. It was a big challenge to maintain law and order but even then police had made sufficient arrangements for the purpose, he added.

Mr Ahmed said that in some areas cluster security arrangements had been made to control several polling stations where police vans would reach immediately in case of any untoward incident.

The personnel of bomb disposal unit, through detectors and sniffer dogs, would thoroughly check the premises of all the polling stations.

Meanwhile, IGP Nasir Khan Durrani has constituted seven vigilance teams comprising high ranking police officers for the local government elections.

The vigilance teams will visit different regions and districts to review security arrangements for the elections. The teams in light of their visit will also suggest improvement in consultation with respective RPOs and DPOs.

The leader of each vigilance team will submit his report to IGP through additional IGP operations. The teams will reach the allotted regions on the morning of May 29. On their arrival, the RPO concerned will provide copies of contingency plan of the district to the team members.

Published in Dawn, May 29th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play