LAHORE, Aug 13: Will the army be able to spare soldiers for election duty on Oct 10, as required by the Election Commission to ensure the holding of peaceful elections? What will be the situation in case the troops are not available in the required number?

Both the questions are difficult to answer at present as nobody is in a position to predict the possible change in the situation during the coming few weeks.

The Election Commission of Pakistan is setting up some 70,000 polling stations all over the country. About four soldiers are required to man every polling station which means 280,000 armymen will be needed to enable voters to use their right to choose their representatives.

Assuming that two soldiers will be sufficient for every polling station, still 140,000 troops will be needed to maintain peace on the polling day.

Pakistan is having to maintain the deployment of a large number of troops on the borders to counter the Indian designs. Since New Delhi is in no mood to withdraw the troops, or even reduce their numbers, Islamabad also cannot afford to take any risk of unilateral withdrawal.

Reports suggest that both sides have put up some one million troops, half a million by either side.

If there is no change in the situation by October, apparently it will not be possible for the army to spare so many soldiers for the elections, being held at the end of the three-year mandate given to the Musharraf government by the Supreme Court.

However, highly placed defence sources said on Tuesday that troops would be deployed only if the situation was beyond the control of the law enforcement agencies, the police and the Rangers.

They said it was possible that duty to maintain law and order on the polling day was entrusted only to the relevant agencies and troops were deployed on selected polling stations to meet any emergency.

The sources pointed out that no troops had been used for the presidential referendum and the same could be done now.

However, an official of the Election Commission who requested not to be named said that decision on placing the polling stations under the supervision of the army would be taken about a fortnight before the polling day.

He recalled that a decision to involve army in the supervision of the 1997 elections had been taken only two weeks before the polling day and the same would be done this time.