LAHORE: As 5,715 Rangers have been placed at the disposal of the Punjab government while the province would also have an estimated 200,000 army personnel for election duty, the home department has set up a digital central control room at the Civil Secretariat to directly monitor the election proceedings, law and order and quickly react to any emergency.

According to officials, Caretaker Chief Minister Hasan Askari Rizvi is likely to inaugurate the control room today (Monday). They say Rs429m had been given to the deputy commissioners for making arrangements for the Rangers and army personnel. More funds would be transferred, if required. The provincial government is also spending huge funds for hiring vehicles for the election staff.

The control room has some exclusive features. It is digitally receiving real-time information of any violation of the code of conduct of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). The violations have been subdivided into display of weapons, wall chalking, misuse of loudspeakers etc. The information appears on a huge LED screen with pictures of the violations and the violators, detecting official and the legal or remedial action taken or not. It is being received from monitoring offices established by all the deputy commissioners and collected by officials of almost all the departments in districts.

CM to inaugurate the facility today

Ten big LED screens are there for monitoring the electronic media to rapidly react in case of any emergency like a clash between rival candidates or their supporters or any other subversive activity. Around nine telephone operators are there to contact the DC or DPO concerned for quick action on cases reported by the media.

From today (Monday), around 10 LEDs would start directly watching 6,104 most sensitive polling stations in the province. The screens would show 40 polling stations with the help of CCTV cameras. Another set of 40 polling stations would appear every 30 seconds. The most sensitive polling stations had been selected from the overall category of sensitive polling stations on the basis of high profile candidates, sectarian violence history and threat of terrorism.

The officials say there are nearly 1,000 sensitive polling stations and all could not be uplinked because of limited bandwidth and CCTV cameras availability. There is a video link facility for a meeting with all the stakeholders in case of an emergency. The cabinet sub-committee on law and order would monitor the control room and directly order police and district administration for remedial and legal measures in case of any untoward situation.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2018