Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa called on Caretaker Prime Minister retired Justice Nasirul Mulk at the Prime Minister's Office in Islamabad on Monday.

This was the second meeting between the interim prime minister and the army chief since the former assumed office earlier this month.

No details of the meeting have been provided to the media so far, but it is believed that the two discussed the overall security arrangements for the July 25 general elections and recent clashes on the border with Afghanistan.

State-run news agency APP simply reported that "matters related to security came under discussion during the meeting."

Profile: Justice Nasirul Mulk — a ‘democrat’ judge

At a meeting held earlier this month with Chief Election Commi­ssioner Sardar Muhammad Raza in the chair, it had been decided that army troops will be deployed in and outside all the nearly 85,000 polling stations being established for the upcoming poll while security cameras will be installed at over 20,000 sensitive polling stations.

Meeting on election arrangements

The prime minister also chaired a meeting today to review the arrangements for the July 25 elections with interim chief ministers of all four provinces in attendance.

According to a statement issued by the PM Office, he received a comprehensive briefing on the preparations and arrangements being made for smooth conduct of general elections 2018.

The briefing held at the Prime Minister’s Office was attended by Interior Minister Muhammad Azam Khan, Punjab Chief Minister Hasan Askari Rizvi, Sindh Chief Minister Fazal-ur-Rehman, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Justice (R) Dost Muhammad Khan, Balochistan Chief Minister Alauddin Marri, Secretary to Prime Minister Suhail Aamir, Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Secretary Babar Yaqoob Fateh Muhammad, federal secretaries of finance, interior and defence divisions, chief secretaries and IGs of the four provinces, ICT administration and other senior government officials.

The ECP secretary made a detailed presentation on the arrangements being made for conducting the elections and elaborated on the details of the code of conduct that has been worked out for contesting candidates, presiding officers, polling staff, the law enforcement agencies deployed for election duties, media and election observers — both local and foreign — who would be monitoring the poll countrywide.

Prime Minister Mulk expressed satisfaction over the preparations made by the ECP, and remarked that ensuring the conduct of free, fair and peaceful elections was the prime responsibility of the commission.

The premier reiterated that the federal and provincial governments are committed to providing every possible support to ECP in the discharge of its constitutional obligations.