KARACHI: Sindh Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah has said that in the first phase of the local government elections scheduled for Oct 31 in Sukkur and Larkana divisions only the police and Rangers will be deployed for security while army units will be on standby at the district headquarters and could be called out in emergency.

The minister stated this while talking to the media after the inauguration of the central monitoring cell of the local government elections here on Thursday in the office of the local government secretary in the Sindh Secretariat. Member of the provincial local government commission Sono Khan Baloch and local government secretary Imran Atta Soomro were also present.

He said the monitoring cell would work round the clock in coordination with similar monitoring cells working in the offices of deputy commissioners. The central cell would be manned by police, Rangers and officials of the local government in three shifts to update the Sindh government on the situation.

In reply to a question, the minister said that superintendents of police and other officials would be available round the clock at the central cell so that in case of disturbance steps could be initiated to control the situation.

Responding to other questions, the minister said the election commission had decided that in the first phase of LG elections on Saturday only police would be deployed for security on all normal polling stations while on ‘sensitive and extremely sensitive’ polling stations the Rangers would also be deployed.

Besides, he said, army troops would be on standby duty in district headquarters which could be used as a quick response force.He made it clear that army troops would not be deployed at polling stations.

Mr Shah said that besides the police and the Rangers, additional reserved force would also be on standby in all the districts to face any untoward situation.

He also said that the Sindh government had taken a number of measures to conduct the local government elections in a peaceful atmosphere and transparent manner. The purpose of holding the local government elections in three phases was, besides making adequate strength of law enforcement agencies personnel available, to facilitate the media’s access to all polling stations for coverage.

The minister said that to ensure holding of elections in a peaceful atmosphere, the polling stations had been categorised in three type of security — normal, sensitive and extremely sensitive. All steps were being taken by the Sindh government as per instructions of the Election Commission and, Insha Allah, the LG polls would be held in the province in an extremely peaceful and transparent manner, he said.

When his attention was drawn towards the allegations of pre-poll rigging on the ruling PPP by opposition parties, the minister said the parties hurling pre-poll rigging allegations should tell the people why the PPP’s opponent parties were facing difficulty in finding suitable candidates for the elections. In fact, he said, there would be contest to an extent among PPP ticket holders with those disgruntled PPP workers contesting as independent candidates.

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2015

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