To conduct free, fair and transparent elections, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday directed the authorities concerned to ban issuing of licences of prohibited and non-prohibited bore weapons with immediate effect and send back all Frontier Constabulary (FC) personnel, mostly engaged with VIPs in Islamabad, to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) for controlling the law and order there.
The decision was taken in a meeting chaired by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Fakhruddin G Ebrahim and attended by the secretaries of defence, establishment, and foreign affairs, as well as all provincial home secretaries.
In the meeting, the CEC suggested that army personnel should be deployed at all polling stations until the announcement of election results. However, Defence Secretary Lt Gen (r) Asif Yasin Malik said the army was unable to perform security duty at every polling station as the troops were engaged at the borders but troops would be deployed at sensitive polling stations.
In his media briefing, ECP Secretary Ishtiak Ahmed said with the consent of the other stakeholders, the ECP decided to form a district election security committee that would identify sensitive polling stations where army personnel would be deployed.
He said it was also decided that the provincial governments would install close circuit cameras at all sensitive polling stations, adding that during the meeting KP Chief Secretary Ghulam Dastagir said 250 platoons of FC, which was created only for policing the border areas of KP and the Tribal Areas, was unnecessarily deployed at other places.
Ahmed said all attendees of eth meeting endorsed the KP home secretary’s suggestion and asked him to move a summary to the prime minister for withdrawal of FC personnel from other places.
Talking about the ban on arms’ licences, the secretary said all secretaries and the Interior Ministry had been directed to ban the issuance of all prohibited and non-prohibited arms licences with immediate effect. He said the home secretaries agreed with the ECP’s directives, and added that a notification in this regard was likely to be issue on Thursday (today).
To a query, Ahmed said display of arms was completely banned during elections campaign, however, he said after completing the due legal process, candidates were allowed to keep five armed guards with them for security purposes.
The ECP secretary said it was also proposed in the meeting that rallies and processions should be limited to covered areas. However, he said before deciding on the matter, the ECP would take up the issue with the Senate’s Special Committee.
The secretary said it was also decided that the movement of Afghan refuges would be banned two weeks before the elections.
About the internally displace persons (IDPS), the secretary said the ECP would facilitate them by setting up polling stations at IDPs camps.
He said political agents in FATA had been given powers of district returning officers and they would be assisting the ECP in holding the elections.
To a query, Ahmed said there was a proposal to deploy the army inside and outside all polling stations in Karachi. “The ECP would take a decision in this regard after consulting the district election security committees,” he said.
The secretary said the process of delimitation of constituencies in Karachi would be completed in the light of the Supreme Court’s decision. “I don’t want to comment on the CEC’s personal opinion…. however, I can tell you that work on delimiting the constituencies in Karachi is in progress,” the secretary said.
He said a limited number of observers would be allowed to visit Pakistan for the monitoring of the forthcoming general elections, adding that they would be allowed to stay in Pakistan just for a week.
The secretary said a committee, headed by the foreign affairs secretary, was working on the formation of a code of conduct for international observers, adding that 700,000 government officials would perform duties in the 2013 general elections.