KARACHI: The Sindh police would need more than 60,000 personnel to perform security duty on the day of polling, January 15, for the local government (LG) elections in Karachi and Hyderabad. The police have already prepared a security plan for the elections.
The assessment emerged during a briefing to the Sindh Inspector General of Police Ghulam Nabi Memon at a meeting held on Thursday regarding the LG elections in 16 districts of Karachi and Hyderabad divisions. The chief secretary of Sindh Dr Mohammad Sohail Rajput chaired the meeting at the Sindh Secretariat.
Provincial election commissioner
Provincial Election Commissioner Ejaz Anwar Chauhan, Home Secretary Saeed Ahmed Magnejo, Karachi Commissioner Mohammad Iqbal Memon, Additional IG Karachi Javed Alam Odho and others attended the meeting.
The Hyderabad commissioner and deputy commissioners of the districts concerned also participated in the meeting through video link.
The participants reviewed security and other arrangements for the second phase of local government elections in the province.
“The local government elections will be held in 4,995 polling stations of Karachi and 3,971 polling stations of Hyderabad and close-circuit television (CCTV) cameras will be installed at 1,675 polling stations in Karachi and 1,015 highly sensitive polling stations in Hyderabad division,” a statement issued after the meeting quoted the chief secretary as saying.
The Sindh government, he said, was creating an environment of peace for transparent, fair and secure elections in line with directives of the Election Commission of Pakistan.
Provincial Election Commissioner Ejaz Anwar Chauhan briefed the meeting about the arrangements made by the commission in this regard.
“A security plan has been prepared for the LG elections. Some 38,233 in Karachi and 24,000 policemen in Hyderabad will perform security duties,” the Sindh IG told the meeting.
The deputy commissioners separately briefed the participants about security and transport plan in their respective districts and the overall situation of polling stations.
Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2022
