LAHORE, April 23: The Punjab police are collecting information about the Nazimeen, politicians and other people who can influence voters in their respective areas for or against the April 30 presidential referendum.
The information being collected by the police also include the lists of irritants, potential threats to law and order, sensitive areas and buildings available for setting up polling stations and housing the polling staff.
Sources in the police department say the SPs have submitted to their seniors detailed reports containing the required information. Besides the elected representatives, the police have also collected information about the heads of the local biradaris (clans) along with their political affiliations and their capacity to influence the voters.
An SP, who asked not to be named, said he had submitted the lists three days ago. He said the lists were confined to the Nazimeen only and nothing else was mentioned in them.
They said the police heads in all cities of the Punjab were holding meetings with pro and anti-government politicians. The meetings were apparently being held to review the arrangements for the referendum but actually they were meant to manipulate support for the referendum, they added.
The police are also being alleged to have made arrangements for the corner meetings of the pro-government Nazimeen in connection with the referendum.
Some anti-government Nazimeen and politicians are said to have been receiving threats and warnings by the police to stay away from any anti-government campaign.
However, Lahore SSP (operations and prevention) Aftab Cheema denied the allegations while taking to Dawn.
He claimed that he had held meetings with politicians from opposition like Khwaja Saad Rafiq, Haji Maqsood Butt and the Jamaat-i-Islami leaders but none of them had recorded any such complaint.
The SSP claimed that the police were neither influencing voters nor threatening the opposition. However, he admitted to having collected referendum related information through the police stations.
“The exercise is being carried out just for the security arrangements. We will make deployments and other security measures on the basis of the information collected,” he added.