PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Tuesday decided it would request the Election Commission of Pakistan to seek the army’s assistance for ensuring security for the re-polling to be held at 365 local government polling stations of the province on July 5.

It also said it would deploy police contingents at every polling station in large numbers and approach the ECP for increasing the number of polling stations. These decisions were made during meeting at the Chief Minister’s House here.

Chief Minister Pervez Khattak chaired the meeting, where provincial ministers Mohammad Atif, Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani, Shahram Tarakai and Muzaffar Syed, MPAs Shaukat Yousafzai and Yaseen Khalil, PTI provincial organiser Fazal Mohammad, chief secretary Amjad Ali Khan, provincial police chief Nasir Khan Durrani, and secretaries of home and local government and rural development departments were in attendance The participants examined arrangements for the July 5 re-polling and security situation in the province.

According to a statement issued here, the provincial government will contact the ECP for the army’s assistance and deployment of at least 100 policemen at every polling station.

“In order to maintain peace and order at women police stations, assistance of Punjab and Islamabad’s women police force will also be sought. The ECP will be asked to considerably increase the number of polling stations.”

The participants decided that carrying arms to polling stations on the election day would be prohibited; a security zone would be created within 50 yards radius of polling stations, and closure of all printing presses of the province would be ensured from July 4 to July 5. They also agreed that male supervisors or voters would not be allowed to enter women polling stations and that the ECP would be asked to properly train 2,000 lady health workers and other polling staff to avoid inefficiency on the polling day.

During the meeting, the chief minister said in view of the fears of disruption of electoral process by some opposition parties, the law-enforcement agencies should take all possible and strict measures to ensure smooth polling.

He said though his government would extend every possible support to the ECP for holding free and peaceful elections, it would strongly recommend that the commission obtain assistance of the army for maintaining peace and order on the election day.

Khattak directed the home department officials to properly inform ECP officials about the government’s position on law and order resources and request them to avoid setting up polling stations at small schools and take steps to prevent rush of voters at polling stations.

He directed the relevant government departments to extend full cooperation to the ECP for ensuring timely availability of polling staff and material at every polling station. The chief minister expressed dissatisfaction with the performance of the returning and presiding officers during the May 30 local body elections and urged the ECP to appoint only trained staff to polling stations for July 5 elections.

Published in Dawn, July 1st, 2015

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