RAWALPINDI: Police have been provided with 4,000 SIM cards, which will be linked to the main election control room to monitor police personnel’s activities during the local government elections in Islamabad.

The SIM cards will remain active for three days.

CID Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Amir Niazi told Dawn that the decision to provide the Islamabad police force with special SIM cards was made to monitor their positions and their response times.

Mr Niazi said that with the use of the new SIM cards, police officials will not be able to ‘cheat’ as they may have done in the past.

Police personnel connected to the local government elections were deployed on their positions on Sunday, and electioneering material was shifted to the relevant sites. FC personnel will remain on standby to meet any untoward incident during polling.

The Punjab authorities have also imposed a ban on the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, due to the security situation, which will remain in place until December 12.

Flying drones, remote controlled model aircrafts, unmanned aircraft systems, flying cameras, quadcopters, helicons, balloons and aerial media coverage have all been banned by the provincial government until the local government elections in the province have been completed.

Regional police officer (RPO) Mohammad Sultan Raja told Dawn that aerial media coverage and flying drones were banned due to the security situation surrounding two upcoming events: the chehlum of Muharram, and the local government elections in Rawalpindi.

He said that any political leader or worker found violating the ban would be treated according to the law.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2015