KARACHI: The Sindh government has to foot a hefty bill of over Rs315 million in maintaining law and order before elections and during the post-election period.

According to informed sources, the amount has been sanctioned by the Ministry of Finance on a summary prepared by the Home Ministry and approved by the caretaker chief minister.

Of the total amount Rs250 million will be spent on purchase of pickups, jeeps, other vehicles and bikes for the Rangers. The equipment to be purchased would include detectors and scanners to be used at entrances to election meetings as well as polling stations on Feb18.

The sources told Dawn that the government had been spending extraordinary on security in view of the precarious law and order situation.

The Pakistan Rangers sources said that they had already placed orders for the vehicles and equipment and delivery would start soon after the release of the amount by the ministry.

They Rangers would perform security duty along with the Army on polling stations declared sensitive by the Election Commission.Sources said that the federal government was cautious about the law and order situation during elections, especially after the murder of PPP leader Benazir Bhutto and the worst violence that followed, which caused millions of rupees loss to the economy.