LAHORE: Following the conclusion of election campaign on Friday midnight, the political parties made last-minute efforts to contest the NA-120 election fully prepared.

The political parties assigned duties to their workers as polling agents at the 220 polling stations.

The candidates turned up at the private TV channels for interviews and leaders were seen moving in the constituency and making arrangements. The parties’ office-bearers and workers were arranging transport to bring out voters as early as possible.

“The workers have been asked to ensure bringing voters at polling stations as early as possible,” a PML-N activist said.

Workers were also filling voters’ slips bearing party election symbols. Orders were placed to cooks to prepare food for voters at various locations in the constituency.

Army, Rangers to be part of security

At a meeting with polling agents on Saturday, PTI central Punjab president Abdul Aleem Khan said they should diligently perform their duty and remain alert till the counting of votes and finalisation of results.

“Keep a vigilant eye on rigging by the PML-N and foil any such attempt,” he said and added that any such incident should immediately be reported to the ECP, party leadership and the media.

SECURITY: After the deployment of the Army and Rangers, the provincial capital police unveiled on Saturday the security plan for the election, deputing more than 8,000 personnel for duty.

The army troops and personnel of the Pakistan Rangers (Punjab) have been deployed at all the polling stations of the constituency and some important buildings.

Lahore Capital City Police Officer Amin Wains, while addressing a meeting of the representatives of the political parties contesting the election, shared details of the security plan. He said aerial firing had been banned and no one would be allowed to even display arms.

The CCPO asked the representatives of the political parties to ensure implementation of the code of conduct issued by the Election Commission.

He also asked them to cooperate with police in maintaining peace and conducting poll process in a transparent manner.

DIG Operations Dr Haider Ashraf said six superintendents of police, 18 DSPs, 46 SHOs and 30 teams of Elite Police force had been deputed in the constituency besides 8,000 personnel of the Lahore police.

In addition, he said, the Police Response Unit and the Dolphin Squad would perform duties.

The DIG said the total strength of the police personnel had been divided into 220 polling stations and 105 buildings which had been declared sensitive. He said the entire constituency had been divided in five zones, some sectors and sub sectors in respect of security strategy.

“Each zone will be headed by a SP, sector by a DSP and sub sector by an SHO,” Dr Haider said.

He said a security mechanism had also been devised for the transportation of the ballot papers.

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2017