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SUKKUR, Aug 24: Corps Commander Sindh Lt-Gen Syed Athar Ali on Wednesday said that polling in any constituency could only be suspended on the orders of the election commission and added that the army would take over any polling station only after it received an EC request to do so.
He made the observation during a briefing held at the office of the DCO Sukkur in connection with the second phase of the local government elections scheduled for Thursday.
He said that besides police and rangers army troops would patrol cities and towns on the polling day to help maintain law and order. He said Sukkur, Larkana, Nawabshah and Hyderabad had been declared sensitive and added that security had been tightened in these districts.
Earlier, the corps commander was informed that a control room had been established in the DCO office to monitor the election process.
The meeting was told that big rallies and processions, use of loudspeakers and sacred places for canvassing, display of arms and making speeches against the ideology of Pakistan had been prohibited during electioneering.
Later, the corps commander visited the headquarters of the Shahbaz Rangers to attend another briefing on the polls.
ALLEGATION: Meanwhile, an alliance against the Mahar sardars alleged that the state machinery was being used in favour of Sardar Ali Gohar Khan Mahar.
Speaking at a press conference at Ghotki, Sardar Ahmed Ali Pitafi, Sardar Ahmed Yar Shar, Nazir Ahmed Lund and others said that in order to ensure victory of the Mahar group the government had increased seven union councils in the district.
They said the decision had been challenged in the Sindh High Court which had granted status quo.
Yet, they added, the government issued notification which was also challenged and the SHC cancelled it leading to postponement of elections in the Ghotki district.
PPP’S CONDEMNATION: Pakistan Peoples Party’s provincial president Syed Qaim Ali Shah, MNA Nawab Yousuf Talpur and Fehmida Mirza condemned what they called the gender-biased remarks of Chief Minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim against party chairperson Benazir Bhutto and urged the Supreme Court to take notice of the chief minister’s remarks.
Arbab Rahim, while addressing an election rally in Larkana on Tuesday, had allegedly said that woman’s rule was a nahusat.
In a joint statement issued in Karachi, the PPP leaders said that by casting aspersions on leaders like Ms Bhutto and Senator Asif Ali Zardari, the chief minister had proved that the PPP-bashing was the only criteria and merit for the cohorts of the military dictatorship.
The PPP leaders also condemned the arrest of party leaders Ali Murad Rajar and Anwar Rajar in Umerkot and demanded their release forthwith.
