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Secretary Election Commission of Pakistan, Ishtiaque Ahmed. — File photo

ISLAMABAD: Secretary Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Ishtiaq Ahmed Khan Tuesday said the chief election commissioner along with other members will visit Quetta on March 28 to hold talks with the dissident Baloch leaders and address their reservations about elections.

Speaking to media representatives, he said members of the Provincial Election Commission were also in contact with the Baloch leaders.

He said the election commission would fully support the Baloch leaders to join the electoral process and hoped that the people would get ‘good news’ in this regard.

Khan said members of the commission will meet all the political leaders including Brahamdagh Bugti and Sardar Akhtar Mengal and persuade them to take part in the elections.

He said the commission would also visit Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Punjab provinces and to devise security plan for the elections.

The secretary ECP said that Frontier Corps, Rangers and police would be deployed on polling stations.

To a question, he said Article 62 and 63 of the Constitution would be fully enforced and any candidate not fulfilling the requirements will stand disqualified.

The secretary said a cell has been set up in the election commission for scrutiny of the nomination papers.

He said out of 69 fake degree cases, 27 have been cleared while 34 have been sent to the relevant District Police Officers for further action, adding that criminal proceeding had been started against two members for having fake degrees.

Khan said a four-member committee including a senior official from Higher Education Commission has also been set up to look into the matter of fake degrees.

Responding to a question, Ishtiaq Ahmed Khan said that delimitation of the constituencies in Karachi was being carried out on the directives of the Supreme Court.

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