LAHORE, Jan 24: Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s Chief Election Commissioner Justice Riaz Akhtar Chaudhry has pledged to hold forthcoming general election in the state in a transparent and fair manner. The polls are likely to be held in June. The AJK Assembly will complete its term on July 24.

Talking to reporters after chairing a meeting of election officials engaged in updating lists of Kashmiri voters based in Punjab here on Tuesday, Justice Chaudhry said the ruling party would not be allowed to interfere with the polling process.

“I’d prefer to step down rather than conceding to government’s interference or use of state resources in the polls.”

Answering a question about his steps to ensure transparency, he said there would be a complete ban on holding processions as well as on aerial firing. Each party/candidate could hold just one public meeting and that too with the prior permission of the commission.

No-one would be allowed to create unrest among voters, he said, adding even if a single bullet was fired at any polling station on the election day, the polling process would be halted.

Polling would be resumed only after fixing responsibility and disqualifying the candidate concerned whose supporter(s) would be found guilty of firing, he said.

Number of voters at each polling booth would not be more than 500 for avoiding problems caused by overcrowding in voting, he said.

The CEC had earlier in a bypoll for an AJK Assembly seat confiscated the official vehicle of ruling Muslim Conference’s Sirdar Attique.

All the voter lists would be completed by Feb 20, he said, adding the date may be extended keeping in view weather conditions in certain AJK areas.

The election schedule would be announced in May.

Also chief justice of the AJK High Court, Justice Riaz Akhtar Chaudhry, had introduced reforms in the subordinate judiciary.

Narrating the success story, he said murder cases in AJK courts were now decided in 40 days with day-to-day hearing as soon as the police submitted the challan of the case.

He claimed that there was no criminal case pending in Bagh, Kahuta, Mirpur and Plandri district courts. The judges of these courts were now able even to give exact hearing time along with date to litigants, he added.

A monitoring cell had been set up to have a check on the daily performance of subordinate courts as the judges were required to fax lists of cases they were to hear the next day, he said.

He said that he had also managed to curb corruption among court officials in granting copies of court orders and issue of stay orders by deputing sessions judges to do the task.