RAWALPINDI: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has sought the help of the station commander Rawalpindi in stopping the ruling PML-N from ‘influencing the cantonment elections’.

It also demanded the deployment of army personnel inside the polling stations on the polling day.

Zahid Kazmi, the secretary general of the PTI Punjab north, made the demand in a letter sent to the station commander, who is also the president of the Rawalpindi and Chaklala cantonment boards.

When asked by Dawn why he did not register a complaint with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and approached the army officer, the PTI leader said the copy of the letter had also been sent to the secretary ECP.

About the request for the deployment of military officials inside the polling stations, he said the demand was made to get the code of conduct and election rules implemented in letter and spirit. He said during the 2013 elections the PML-N local leaders and workers had misbehaved with the PTI supporters.

PTI leader also requests station commander to stop PML-N from influencing the elections

Mr Kazmi said the letter was written in order to stop the entry of PML-N leaders and parliamentarians in the cantonment board offices and remove their relatives from the committees of the two boards as they were influencing the voters against the PTI.

In the letter, the PTI leader praised the army and the Supreme Court for holding the elections in cantonment areas. “The Punjab government is seeking an unfair advantage by politicising the elections. Bigwigs from the PML-N have longstanding associations with the officials of the cantonment boards. For example, Hafiz Hussain Ahmad of the PML-N is the chairman of the building assessment committee and Malik Munir, who is a cousin of MNA Malik Abrar, is member of the commercial assessment committee.” Local aspirants are in regular contact with the board officials and are exploiting the municipal services for their own objectives.

He said seven private schools would be used for polling stations belonging to the PML-N-affiliated candidates. The revenue departments of the boards have suddenly become overactive towards the remittances of taxes while the aspirants are showing their influence by getting the public issues resolved and converting different dues of the residents into easy installments.

The PTI leader demanded that the entry of all politically-affiliated individuals should be banned in the cantonment board offices and their existing entry/parking passes should be cancelled. “Politically-affiliated individuals should be suspended from all the regular and honorary positions of the boards till the elections.”

He said the officials of the cantonment boards should also be directed to stop entertaining political personalities in and outside their offices.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2015

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