RAWALPINDI: The district administration on Friday chalked out plan to transport polling staff and material on Feb 8 and decided to get 1,700 vehicles from different departments for the election duties.

A senior official of the district administration told Dawn that returning officers would finalise polling stations after receiving reports of the special branch in a day or two.

He said letters had been sent to different government departments seeking details of the vehicles available with them.

He said the returning officers would use their own official vehicles while election staff including presiding officers and polling staff will be given transportation facility.

He said a secure place would be identified that for storage of polling material next week.

He said that the control room would be established at Sports Complex in Liaquat Bagh from Jan 1. The official said that after preparation of the polling stations list, CCTV cameras would also be installed in and around the sensitive polling station before the polling day.

Meanwhile, during the scrutiny of the nomination papers in the second phase of the upcoming general elections, as many as 25 candidates nomination papers checked by the returning officers including Hanif Abbasi, Raja Basharat, Ijaz Khan Jazzi and Hamid Nawaz Raja and others.However, the announcement of rejection and acceptance of the papers will be announced on Dec 30 (today).

Talking to the media, PML-N candidate Hanif Abbasi said that electioneering had been started . He said that PML-N served the people for the last 35 years in the garrison city and again, people will elect Nawaz Sharif’s candidates.

“During last five years, PTI has done nothing for the people of Rawalpindi,” Mr Abbasi said. He said that Imran Khan and Sheikh Rashid have incited people to burn government property. “Now they are claiming as innocent but people knew the real face of anti-Pakistan characters,” he said.

Published in Dawn, December 30th, 2023