RAWALPINDI: As many as 175 reserves of Punjab Police Constabulary (PC) comprising 3,500 officials will be performing duties to help maintain peace during the upcoming general elections in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and related areas on July 25.

These officials will be sent to the AJK and other places of duty on the request of the AJK government.

Of the 175 PC reserves, 100 reserves comprising 2,000 personnel will be deployed in AJK, 60 in Sialkot, 10 in Rawalpindi and five in Jhelum to assist the local police during the general elections.

Sources told this reporter that the AJK government had asked the Punjab provincial authorities to provide the Punjab Constabulary (PC) to assist the local police in maintenance of peace during the general elections.

The 100 PC reserves, including 70pc anti-riot and 30pc with arms and ammunition, will be placed at the disposal of AJK police. The PC personnel will be sent for the election duty on July 22.

In addition, 60 PC reserves have been placed at the disposal of regional police officer (RPO), Gujranwala, for their effective utilisation during the AJK elections on July 25.

The RPO will be authorised to depute the PC reserves to the districts of the region on need basis. The 60 reserves comprising 1,200 personnel will report to the RPO on July 22.

In addition, 10 reserves have been allocated to Rawalpindi district and five placed at the disposal of Jhelum DPO. The arrangements for accommodation, food as well as welfare of the reserve force will be made by the concerned districts and the AJK police in the respective areas.

Punjab Constabulary is a law enforcement agency responsible for maintaining peace in the province by assisting the police.

CEC orders confiscation of AJK minister’s vehicles

On the directions of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Election Commission, a returning officer in a Kashmiri refugees’ constituency in Pakistan has asked the deputy commissioner concerned to seize both official vehicles allotted to an AJK minister for their alleged use in his election campaign.

According to a press release issued here on Friday, the commission had received a complaint with pictorial evidence that minister for prisons, Chaudhry Muhammad Ishaque, who is ruling PML-N candidate from LA-36, Jammu-III, was using his Toyota car (GB-036) and Fortuner Jeep (GA-068) in his campaign in Sialkot district after replacing their original green registration plates with fake number plates.

On this, the commission directed the district election commissioner who is also the returning officer of the said constituency to initiate the request action.

The district election commissioner had ordered the deputy commissioner of Sialkot to confiscate both vehicles and submit a report into their alleged use in electioneering in violation of the code of conduct.

The action was taken by the commission a day after giving clear directions to the Secretary Services and General Administration Department (S&GAD) to immediately confiscate and return to the central transport pool all such vehicles of cabinet members which were found being used by them in their election campaign.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2021