KARACHI, Oct 9: The Election Commission of Pakistan has finalized arrangements to conduct the elections in a free, fair and transparent manner all over the province on Thursday.

To review the arrangements, a high-level meeting was held on Wednesday at the Provincial Election Commission, chaired by Member EC Justice Mohammad Ashraf Leghari.

Sindh Chief Secretary K. B. Rind, Home Secretary Brig. Mukhtar Ahmed, IGP Syed Kamal Shah, DCO Shafiq Ahmed Paracha, DROs of the five districts of Karachi, secretaries of different provincial departments, a representative of Corps-5 and Provincial Election Commissioner of Sindh Ahmed Ali Halepoto attended the meeting.

In his remarks, the Member of EC Justice Mohammad Ashraf Leghari expressed his satisfaction over arrangements, being made by the provincial government and said except for some minor problems at a few places, every arrangement is finalized.

He said every concerned department should discharge its obligations as a national duty and stressed the need of coordination between different departments for smooth conduct of the election process.

Leghari said all the district returning officers have reported finalization of arrangements in their respective districts and the election material has been delivered in each district for its onward distribution to the polling stations.

He pointed out that a few complaints have been received about shortage of transport in some districts. The chief secretary and IGP assured the meeting that those problems would be solved by the Wednesday evening.

The EC Member said the polling staff would reach by Wednesday evening to the polling stations in rural areas and early in the morning in urban areas. The polling would start at 8 am sharp, he added.

Briefing the meeting, the chief secretary, K. B. Rind, said adequate arrangements have been made to hold free and fair elections in every part of the province. He said extra police force had been deployed at sensitive areas.

The home secretary told the meeting that beside police, about 15,000 personnel of private security forces have been deployed at various polling stations in Karachi city.

These private security agencies are providing their personnel free of cost to the provincial administration, including vehicles, he added.

The IGP said the Sindh Police had made fool-proof system of the security during the polling day. The system has been rechecked and in case of any disturbance anywhere, the police mobile can reach the spot within three to five minutes.

He urged the EC that the compensation of private sector vehicles be enhanced, as Rs 500 per vehicle for three days is a very nominal amount. Most of the private sector vehicle owners prefer giving their vehicles to the candidates instead of the government because of meagre amount of compensation from the government.

The EC Member assured the meeting that he would take up the matter with the commission.

He also asked the home secretary to provide armed guards to all DROs.

The DCO, Shafiqur Rehman Paracha, said that the district administration has tried to solve all the problems of the election staff.

He pointed out that the district administration was extending full cooperation to the polling staff.

The problems like provision of electricity, water and improvement of sewerage at polling stations have already been solved, he added.

The DRO of the five districts of Karachi explained the arrangements in their respective districts. Some DROs pointed towards the lack of arrangements. The chief secretary assured the meeting that by Wednesday afternoon, all those problems would be resolved.

Later talking to APP, the Provincial Election Commissioner Ahmed Ali Halepoto said the PEC had set up 13,962 polling stations in all over Sindh and the number of polling booths is 37,213 in all over the province.

In Karachi, he said the number of registered voter is 4.7 million (2.6 million male and 2.08 million female).

To a question, Mr Halepoto said the presiding officers of each polling station would submit the result of the elections to the concerned DRO and the DROs would fax the results to the EC head office in Islamabad. All the results would be announced from EC in Islamabad, he added.

After the meeting, the EC Member, with DROs and provincial election commissioner, visited various polling stations and inspected the arrangements there.

During the visits to D. J. Science College in district Karachi South and Habib Public School in district Karachi West, the EC Member and DROs inspected the arrangements and facilities at the polling stations.—APP