Army personnel to be deployed for NA-120 by-polls

E-Paper | April 24, 2026

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday issued a notification directing the defence ministry to deploy army personnel during the by-polls at the NA-120 constituency.

The NA-120 seat fell vacant following the disqualification of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in the Panama Papers case. The election in this constituency will take place on September 17.

PML-N's Kulsoom Nawaz and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI)'s Dr Yasmeen Rashid are among the main contenders.

The ECP has decided to deploy army personnel in and outside the voting stations during the polling process. The army personnel have been asked to remain at the stations until the counting of votes.

Earlier, PPP and PTI had demanded the ECP to deploy army personnel during the polling process to ensure transparency as well as to maintain law and order.

The returning officer for the constituency had also also appealed to the authorities to deploy army men during the polling.

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Ahmad

Aug 24, 2017 11:49am

Great!

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Ahmad

Aug 24, 2017 11:50am

Do the same in general elections

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Aug 24, 2017 12:11pm

@Ahmad It wouldn't be practically possible to do that in General Elections. We would have to make smart use of the IT infrastructure we have to accomplish transparency the way developed countries have done.

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JKR

Aug 24, 2017 12:22pm

Good move but clearly this is shame for the other state institutions primarily responsible for the elections. Salute to Pakistan army who always extend its support for any occassion.

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Anti-Corruption_Pakistani

Aug 24, 2017 12:47pm

Good decision, and army should supervise and monitor all future elections in the future to stop rigging. It would be interesting to see, who wins in NA-120 - let the people decide without any bribe, influence or pressure. Commonsense should prevail!

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Jamil Akhtar

Aug 24, 2017 01:05pm

voting through bio metric system should be adopted to make it more authentic, clear and acceptable to both the parties

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The end is near

Aug 24, 2017 01:38pm

Better late than never. Army must stay in and outside the voting stations during the whole polling process until the counting of votes and announcement of results. Plus CCTV cameras must be installed at different angles inside and outside the voting stations to ensure transparency and free, Fair and rigging-free polling. The same should be done in the general elections in 2018. And ECP must also consider biometric electronic voting system for the upcoming general elections in order to completely eliminate the cancer of rigging from it's roots.

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Truth Seeker

Aug 24, 2017 03:18pm

Good. No one can accuse of rigging afterward.

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Kaashi

Aug 24, 2017 03:35pm

Sheikh Azhar Hussain Rizvi from Tehreek Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) will win in the NA-120 election. All the best Sheikh Sahab.

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