LAHORE: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has shown its no-trust in the polling staff to be taken from the district administrative machinery and has sought that judicial staff should instead be considered for the polling duties.

Punjab PPP information secretary Shehzad Saeed Cheema said in a statement here on Sunday that acquiring services of the district administration for Feb 8, 2024 polls would open a new Pandora’s box in the electoral history of the country.

He demanded posting of polling staff from the judiciary instead of the administrative machinery for the general election, cautioning that posting of the latter as district returning officers and returning officers would put a question mark on the transparency of the election results.

He argued that there was an impression that the provincial administrative machinery was under the influence of a certain political party and thus its neutrality was questionable.

He urged the chief election commissioner to request the chief justice of Pakistan for seeking permission to hire the services of the judicial staff for polling duties because providing a level playing field to all the political parties is the legal responsibility of the election commission.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2023