0
FAISALABAD, Oct 9: Despite the orders of the Chief Election Commissioner, the local police have so far failed to register cases against the policemen who disrupted a PPP rally on Saturday night.
Heavy police contingents had tried to arrest ex-MNA and PPP district president Chaudhry Muhammad Ilyas during the election meeting at Hajiabad. But the police attempt was foiled due to the strong resistance of PPP central leaders and participants.
At the time of police raid and siege of the stage, ex-MNA Aitzaz Ahsan was speaking to the public while PPP central leaders Makhdoom Amin Faheem, Qasim Zia, Safdar Abbasi and others were also present.
Taking a suo motu notice, the CEC had directed the IGP to register criminal cases against the policemen involved in raiding and disrupting the PPP rally.
A senior police officer on the condition of anonymity told Dawn that instructions of the CEC had been set aside and an investigation team had been constituted under the supervision of AIGP.
He said the IGP was also reluctant to register cases against the policemen just to save the skin of his subordinates. However, he confirmed that the Punjab governor took a serious notice of the incident and warned local police high-ups not to repeat such tactics in future.
When contacted, the Sargodha Road police muharrar said that he received no complaint from any person or the police official for the registration of cases against the policemen who conducted raid on Hajiabad election meeting.
The CEC had for the first time directed the Punjab and Sindh police for the registration of cases against policemen on the charge of misusing powers and disrupting election meetings. But all these efforts have proved an exercise in futility because no case has so far been registered in Faisalabad.
Meanwhile, Chaudhry Ilyas and PPP city president Imran Murtaza have asked the CEC to issue orders for the implementation of his instructions.
FINALIZED: All is set for holding elections in 11 national and 22 provincial assembly seats in the district for which 3.14 million voters, including 1.47 million women, will exercise their right to vote.
Tight security arrangements have jointly been made by the police and administration for conducting the polling. Policemen will perform their duties at polling stations while the army jawans will only monitor the elections. However, the armed commandos will patrol in some sensitive areas to avoid any untoward incident.
For providing prompt police assistance, the district has been divided into 10 sectors and 300 sub-sectors.
The police personnel of sub-sectors will also be responsible for bringing presiding officers to offices of returning officers so as to accomplish the counting process speedily.
District returning officer/district sessions judge Jawed Iqbal said that 2,948 polling stations, including 1,163 for women and 672 mixed, had been set up in the district.
He said 29,127 presiding officers, assistant presiding officers and other polling staff had been deputed. At least 876,409 new voters would use their right to vote for the first time due to reduction of age from 21 to 18 years, he added.
